Kingdom Hearts: Fate of Heart
by Lord Fortune
Summary: Sequel. The Empire closes in and Maleficent makes her triumphant return. In the midst of this, a prophecy is found which sends Sora off on a new quest. But another foe is coming from the least expected angle, and fate isn't on Sora and Kairi's side...
1. Routine

**Welcome back!... That is, if anyone is here... *Depressed sigh...*... I have no readers... Why do all the crack and gay fics get the readers? Stupid fangirls... You're the reason games like FF VIII and FF X exist...**

** STOP! THIS IS A SEQUEL TO ANOTHER FIC! For anyone who's stumbled upon this fic I advise you to go back and read my first work, 'Bliss of Heart'. I assure you, the crappy writing from the first... well, a lot of the fic goes away eventually. Really, just read the first chapter and then skip to one of the later ones! You'll see what I mean!... I need to shut up now.**

** Okay, disclaimer. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any other Square Enix/Disney licensed characters/locations and such that appear as we progress. All disclaimers and claimers from the last fic won't be covered here, so if there's a lawyer reading, make sure that you go back and look at the last one before you file suit!**

** Anyway, on with the show!

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** Kingdom Hearts: Fate of Heart**

**Chapter 1: Routine

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**Hoth**

** Outer Rim**

** 6: 58 PM**

** Planetary Location: Unknown**

** Six months after Edge**

Saying that the landscape of this world was bleak was an understatement. The sky was white, the ground was white, and the mountains were white. The temperature on this world varied from cold, to very cold, to deadly cold. If one didn't have money for a freezer, or if perhaps their current freezer was full, this world would make a very good substitute. Just about anything that wasn't native to this world (or one that was colder) couldn't survive on it's own, and that was why a human being in the distance was covered with thick, warm clothing, and riding atop a trained mount that was furry enough that it wouldn't keel over after three minutes of waging war against the elements.

The man pulled on the reins, bringing the alien to a stop. He removed his goggles and lifted a pair of futuristic looking binoculars to his eyes, and followed a meteor as it hurtled down towards the world's surface. It impacted, throwing up ice and snow that probably wouldn't have ever moved otherwise. The man urged the beast a bit closer to the cliff, and took a better look down at the smoking crater. He reached for a communicator, and spoke into it.

"Echo-3 to Echo-7. Do you read me, Han?"

"Loud and clear, kid," the smuggler replied. "What's up?"

"Well, I've finished my circle," the former farmer answered. "And I don't pick up any life readings."

"Luke, there isn't enough life on this ice cube to fill a space cruiser. Sensors are placed, I'm going back."

"I'll see you shortly," Luke replied. "A meteor hit the ground near here, and I want to check it out. It shouldn't take long."

Luke Skywalker cut off the connection just as his mount reared up violently.

"Whoa!" Luke said, fighting it a bit. "What's the matter girl? You smell something?"

Suddenly, two giant paws slashed out of no where. One drove it's claws into the beast's chest, killing it, and the other slashed across Luke's face, leaving deep gouges and hurling him to the ground several feet away, where he didn't move.

** Elsewhere...**

Another snowy beast trotted up across a huge open stretch of snow towards the barely visible mouth of a cave. Surrounding it, and even several miles in front of it, were trenches and turrets, all poised to defend the cave from any kind of ground assault. However, no one was on hand to man these weapons. The man atop the alien rode past them fearlessly towards the cave, cursing the cold under his breath as he always did. As he got near to the mouth of the cave, men in white uniforms and helmets were manning weapons or observing the landscape as they always were when he came through. Some of the men acknowledged him with either waves or salutes, but most were far to absorbed in their duties to notice his presence. If they did, they simply ignored him, as the return of a routine patrol never brought anything of surprise. Always the same news: Still white, still cold, still hell.

The man rode into the cave, which had gone through a bit of renovation. It was now a massive hanger, filled with high-tech do-dads and assorted space and land crafts. The man road into a sort of stable for his monster and dismounted, leaving the three men that ran up to deal with his mount. Removing his helmet and goggles, he walked off into the hanger towards a large, disk shaped ship that, relative to the other crafts before him, looked like a peace of shit.

Atop the ship was a large furry creature with what might have been an ammo chain wrapped around it's torso. It was holding goggles to it's eyes with one hand, and a welding device of some sort with the other, working on something inside the ship through an open panel.

"Chewy!" the man yelled up the the creature. It didn't hear him, which prompted another bark of "Chewy!" The creature looked down at him, turning the device off and lowering it's goggles. "How's it coming?"

The creature replied with a series of incomprehensible grunts and roars, which were accompanied by a little fist shaking.

"Alright, calm down," the man said, holding up his hands defensively. "I'll see if I can't get a replacement part. But I want this bucket of bolts up and running soon, okay?"

The creature answered with a loud roar before it turned back to it's work. The man walked off through the hanger towards the rear, where a door was placed in the icy wall. It opened automatically as he approached it, and he brushed past a man who might have been a mechanic on his way through. He walked through the cramped halls to his room, where he dumped his helmet and goggles, and took off his eskimo coat, revealing a still heavy, but relatively lighter outfit for the heated base. He exited the room and walked again until he came to what appeared to be a command center of sorts.

"Ah! Commander Solo!" said an important looking man who had just been going over some sort of reading with a woman operating a computer. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I just wanted to inform you that I'm almost finished making repairs to my ship, and I'll be leaving as soon as I can," Han Solo said.

"We sure wish you wouldn't go and leave us, Han," the man said. Neither of them noticed that they had attracted the attention of a woman who also looked rather important. She had been looking at a computer with another man who looked rather important, with long black hair and glasses. That man noticed that she had been distracted by something, and looked over at the two men.

"Well, Jabba's got such a big price on my head just about every bounty hunter is looking for me," Han replied. "Any longer and it's gonna be so high you guys might turn me in."

"I understand what it's like to have I price on your head, Solo," the man said, holding out a hand. "You're a good man." Han shook it, nodded, and walked out.

The other two who had been observing looked at each other, the man nodded to her, and she took off after him.

Jacob stood from his chair at the computer, checked to make sure that his gun was still in it's holster as he always did out of paranoid habit, and then departed out another door. He moved quickly, and no one made eye contact with him, and the reason wasn't because it was hard, since his hair fell over his right and the left lens of his glasses was cracked slightly.

No, the reason was because everyone in the base knew that there was nothing to see in his eyes, and that looking into his eyes might gain his attention, and you didn't want his attention. Even a twenty-year old could mean trouble for some of the more formidable veterans of the Rebel Alliance.

Jacob reached up and unzipped his black jacket a little, because he was suddenly feeling a bit hot. He was getting deeper into the base, after all, and one usually does feel that way. He approached his office and let the door open for him, then stepped inside to find a young woman of somewhere between sixteen or seventeen nodding off at his desk.

The door closed quietly enough that it didn't disturb her, and Jacob was almost afraid to break the serenity of the moment and stop her from falling onto his desk, fast asleep. However, he decided that he didn't want to have to clean up any drool later, so he tapped Terra on the shoulder. She jumped a bit, and looked up at him. "J-Jacob, I was j-just finishing the paperwork you were having me-"

"Take a nap," Jacob said, gesturing towards his cot. She glanced from the cot, to him, and back to the cot, and then to him again.

"Is that alright?"

"Would I have offered if it wasn't?"

Terra rose, nodded in what might have been a thankful fashion, and walked over to the cot, yawning a bit as she removed her boots and her heavy white uniform.

Jacob sat down in his chair and pulled himself a bit closer to the desk to find that Terra had gone through about half of the files that lay before him. "Good job," Jacob said over his shoulder as Terra slid under his covers and let out what might have been a 'thanks' concealed in a yawn.

Jacob shoved one pile off to the side and started with the next one, pulling the top few sheets down. He looked them over before he decided that paperwork was as boring as watching a ten-hour documentary on the history of ice, and instead pulled what might have been a miniature laptop out of his desk.

He opened it and began to type something rather feverishly, while simultaneously tapping buttons on a machine under his desk with his boot.

"Who're you writin' to?" Terra slurred, gazing at him absently, almost gone.

"No one you know," Jacob replied as he always did.

"... I don't know many peoples..."

"That's true," Jacob said, looking back over at the girl as her eyes closed.

"... I can..."

But Jacob never found out what Terra could, because she fell asleep.

**Elsewhere...**

Stitch was a bit like that annoying thing that everyone has in their life that they know they can't get rid of because it's become a part of who they are, and someday, it might be useful, no matter how much they want to watch it die slowly and painfully at the moment.

Right now, just about everyone in Echo Base wished that the little blue abomination didn't exist. The only few people who could seem to control or even simply calm Stitch, and yet no one had yet put in a complaint asking for him to be thrown out into the cold icy elements.

No one that was, accept for those in charge of rationing out food, because the cute (and fluffy) ball of death seemed to think that he was entitled to a double helping of anything that he wanted at any given time.

Zidane wasn't quite as bad, but only because he knew that since he was bigger, he would be more likely to get caught. Also, even though he was, at Heart, a thief and a joker, he knew that this was a military operation, and that he needed to show some restraint.

Why had he signed on again? He had walked onto the Shera and decided to impress everyone with his impeccable timing while simultaneously making them think that he was selfless and decent?

Man alive, had this plan backfired so far.

Six months since he had left Radiant Garden... several of which he had spent on this icy hell. Granted, things were never boring with Stitch around; but then again, boring had become a relative term, since life was based around routine here. What was exciting here would have been boring on Radiant Garden, but hey, take what you can get.

He wasn't sure how easy it would be to desert since he couldn't fly, but he was quite convinced that, if push came to shove, he and Stitch could take a pilot and force him to fly them away from this giant excuse for a world.

And yet, for some reason, he hadn't ever more than thought about the possibility and laughed. He hadn't really hatched any ideas, or even considered hatching any. He wanted to be here, even though he couldn't put his finger on why. Perhaps it was because he had the hots for women that carry fire arms, and there were plenty of those here. Or perhaps it was because... he was a decent guy?

... Nah!

**Somewhere else in the base...**

Kairi adjusted her hat so that it sat a bit less crooked, though it was far to big for her and fell to the side again almost instantly. Then, she found herself questioning just why she even cared what Sora thought of her appearance.

She stepped through the door into Sora's room, and was met with no one.

Kairi sighed. When was Sora ever in his room? When he slept there, and that was only sometimes. But, the question was, where was he now?

He could be out in the mid-day snow, which was not quite as cold as it was during most of the day. Perhaps he was staying in practice with his magic. Or, he could be wandering aimlessly about the halls as he often did, occasionally gaining looks and whispers from grown men. Perhaps he was risking his rank by running about with Zidane and Stitch, trying to break the mundanity of this routine-run life which he obviously hadn't been expecting when he signed on.

Kairi kinda wished that Sora would invite her to come with them some time.

Seemed like, ever since Riku died, and perhaps a bit earlier, Sora had stopped treating her like a friend. More like a co-worker, or something along those lines. He treated her like a woman, and were they still friends she supposed she might have liked that, but right now she would do anything for Sora to treat her like the tomboy she still kinda was.

Again, she found herself questioning exactly why she cared about any of this. She had other friends here!

Oh wait... no she didn't...

Terra would barely speak to her, but then again, she wouldn't speak to_ anyone_, save Jacob. Zidane was always a sexist when he was around her, or at least flirted shamelessly. She liked Stitch, and Stitch liked her, but other than that, there wasn't anyone else.

"He's got to be here somewhere..." she muttered to herself. She stepped away from the door and it closed as she walked away down the hall looking for a certain spiky-haired Keybearer.

**Outside...**

She wouldn't find Sora in the base, however. She would be much more prudent to trek out through the snow to the crater where the larger ships were concealed, including the Shera. Sora was aboard it, though it was much colder there than it was in the base. However, he was hiding away somewhere he used quite often to escape from all the crap life had thrown at him and the others recently, and had gone inside of Pooh's story book.

Sora had worked for a long time to clear a communication to Radiant Garden so that he could ask Merlin to poof the book to the base. Of course, he lied about his reasons to everyone else. When Merlin agreed to send the book to the deck of the Shera, Cid had come upon it before Sora reached it, since he spent almost all his time on his ship. After Cid went in, however, he found that it was impossible to swear in that world, something which he very much wanted to do because of the numerous annoying residents of the woods.

Sora pulled him out, and Cid said that he never wanted to go back in.

Sora had told Kairi and Zidane about it, and he had taken in with him on several occasions. After Kairi's day in the woods with Marline, Denzel, and Rinoa several months earlier, she enjoyed seeing Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and the works again. Zidane promptly attempted to steal from everyone living in the woods, but found that it was impossible, and he always got busted in the most comedic way possible. Rather than giving up, though, he took it as a new challenge, and continued to attempt thievery, and inadvertently became friends with everyone in the book.

Kairi had suggested that they invite Terra to join them at one point, but Sora had answered with a simple 'no'.

"Why not?" Kairi had asked as she batted away Zidane's tail, which had a habit of resting near Kairi's rear end.

"Because, she's not like us," Sora answered, placing his glass of lemonade on Rabbit's table as said creature, Pooh and Piglet looked up from their drinks to listen.

"What do you mean she's not like us?" Kairi demanded.

"I mean that... well..." Sora seemed a bit lost for words.

"Who are you talking about?" Piglet asked in his patented intimidated voice.

"Terra," Kairi replied shortly as she again bated away Zidane's tail.

"That quiet young girl in red?" Rabbit recalled. "She seemed rather sensible."

"She just stands around all day and stares at you and tilts her head to the side like she doesn't understand what you're talking about," Sora said.

"Pooh Bear does that a lot," Piglet pointed out.

"Well, I _am_ a bear of very little brain."

"She's just too... flat," Sora tired to find words, glancing back at Kairi. "She never shows any emotion of any kind."

Kairi gave him a slightly dirty look and then stood up. "I can't believe you. I'm gone; you can enjoy your stupid little escapism without me."

Kairi walked out the door, leaving Sora in a pretty shocked state. Zidane tapped him on the shoulder and spoke up for the first time. "I'm gonna leave too. I've tried stealing enough to hold me over for a while. Plus, this place doesn't have any bo-"

He couldn't speak. The word was cut off as though he was being censored.

"... No ti-"

Again.

"... No cute butts." He smiled. "Ha ha! I outsmarted the book!" And with that, he stood, gave a little bow towards the rather confused animals, and then departed.

Which brought Sora back to the present. He was feeling kinda guilty about going back to the book for the second time since Kairi and Zidane had bailed on him. Everyone living in the woods was always happy to have him come, but since they all knew that he had a fight of sorts with his other two friends, everything just felt awkward.

After spending only twelve hours (about seven or eight hours in the outside world) inside the book, he felt far to off about things and decided to jump out. He left the book and instantly regretted it as he appeared back in the Shera, which was very cold, even though it was far, far warmer than the outside.

_"I'm gonna go and find Kairi,"_ he found himself thinking, though he wasn't sure what he would say when he found her.

He went down to the ramp, bundled up, and walked out into the cold, for very short walk back to the entrance of Echo Base, though it felt much longer.

**Somewhere else in the galaxy...**

A large table sat in a room shrouded in Darkness. A group of villains chattered amongst themselves as they awaited Maleficent's arrival in the Hall of Empty Melodies.

Recently, she had been able to gain back their faith with a perfectly ingenious plan that would require all of their participation, and everyone would get a personal payoff.

All at once, the click of Maleficent's heels could be heard as she made her classic 'dramatic entrance'. She had done it at every other meeting, and at the others she had burst in with a giant ball of green and black flame. She had failed to impress anyone even the first few times around, so it was a loss to them why she continued her ritual.

The witch stepped up onto the table and looked around at the assembled, and said simply, "Everything is in order."

A brief cheer went up at this.

"We've placed our agents, and you all have made preparations on your own worlds. As soon as Sora and his friends leave Hoth, we will put our plans in motion. They will most likely head to either Disney Castle or Radiant Garden first, so we will have monitors at both locations so we can pick up on where they are headed after that. And, if necessary, we will influence their movements."

"Uh, yeah, about that," said Hades, with the sarcastic voice he always possessed. "They're with a military group, genius. They don't decide where they want to go. The could be on that world for years for all you know!"

"I've already anticipated this," Maleficent replied, with sting in her voice that was meant to put Hades back in line, but had no effect. "If they do not move from the world soon, we will send the Empire details on their location. This is a risky move, as we need to remain anonymous throughout this whole ordeal. However, if push comes to shove, we shall do it. Also, as to how we will get them away from the Rebellion: We've send a team to plant the idea that Sora and his group should leave the bulk of the Rebellion for their own safety."

She gestured to the shadows, where a man in a beige suit emerged and stepped up onto the table as well. His light brown hair was slicked back, and a subtle beard circled his mouth and went up his jaw.

"This is Mr. Cobb," Maleficent said. "He and his team will be infiltrating the base and planting the idea inside of Princess Leia."

"This pipsqueak?" Captain Hook asked suspiciously, swiping his claw at Cobb dismissively. "You'd trust something this important to-"

Suddenly, Hook found that the barrel of a silenced hand gun was shoved in his mouth.

"Please be quiet," Cobb requested. "I'm not interested in killing you."

Hook, wide eyed, nodded slowly, and Cobb removed the gun (to the disappointed sighs of a few other villains who really wanted to see the annoyance blown to hell). He hid it back inside of his jacket, where he must have drawn it from, but no one was sure, because it had been too quick. He glanced at Maleficent and said, "Our deal still stands?"

"But of course."

Cobb nodded, looked around at the other people in the room with an expression that suggested he really didn't want to be doing this, and then got down from the table and walked out, pulling what looked like a spinning top out of his pocket as he went into the Darkness.

**Back on Hoth...**

Terra was still asleep on Jacob's bed when Kairi came into his room to find him performing a head stand near his wall, facing away from the door. His glasses were laying next to him, and his hair was in a giant lump on the ground.

"Hey Kairi," he said casually as though he wasn't doing anything that would attract odd looks. She didn't find it at all odd that he knew who she was without looking at her. "What's up?"

"Your feet."

"Ah ha. Funny."

"Why are you-?"

"I don't have a damn clue."

He dropped, picked up his glasses, and jumped to his feet, shaking his head so that it looked just as shaggy as ever, and still fell over his right eye. He put his glasses in and turned, and suddenly Kairi was struck with a thought: She had never seen Jacob's eyes properly.

"Now," Jacob said. "I'll ask a bit differently: Why are you here?"

"Sora's gone again."

"He seems to be gone quite a bit, doesn't he?"

"Do you know where he is?"

"Seems to me like you'd be more of an expert on your best friend's location that I would be," Jacob pointed out.

"... Well... we're, uh-"

"Not doing so great in the 'relationship department'. I follow. You know what, though? You guys are both dealing with Riku's death differently. Plus, you can't really blame him for not wanting Terra along."

"How did you know about that?" Kairi demanded.

"Zidane told me."

"You've been having that womanizing little jerk spy on us?"

"No. He just told me."

"... Oh."

"That's a good idea, though."

Kairi gave a little growl before she turned on her heel and left the room in a huff, the door shutting behind her.

Jacob rolled his eyes at her stiff humorlessness, and then walked back to one of the many closet/drawers that were in the wall of the icy room. He slid one open and revealed what looked like a miniature brewing machine, and next to it was a heater.

He opened a hatch for the brewer and looked at the two tiny little vials that were being filled with a bright pink, murky looking liquid. Six months of brewing in the making.

He had told Rinoa that he was brewing love potion seven months ago, and he had meant it. However, he had since thought of a better idea than straight-up synthetically generated love: He had concocted his own custom serum that would enhance whatever feelings one has for the first person of the opposite sex they came into close contact with. Were they to see someone that they simply like, they would think more of them, perhaps a mild crush. Someone that they already love, however, and the feeling would skyrocket. If he could inject Sora and Kairi with the serum and have them both in the same room, then his problems with the Darkness assaulting Kairi would be over.

That reminded him. Jacob went to his desk and grabbed the small computer he had been using from earlier and opened it to see that his readout was downloading.

The second that Kairi had stepped into Jacob's room, a scanner had begun to work on her body. In just a moment, he'd have diagnostics of her Heart, and the Darkness surrounding it. Ever since Riku had died and Sora had started treating Kairi differently, the levels of Darkness around her Heart had almost doubled. If he wasn't so worried for her well being, he would have been fascinated by the fact that she couldn't feel it's presence weighing down on her. He was sure that it had a grip on her mind and feelings by now, and if it broke through and destroyed her status as Princess of Heart, it would only get worse.

The reading came through, and Jacob was disappointed to find that it had gotten even worse since her last visit to his room, which had been shortly before she stopped going to the Hundred Acer Wood. However, he wasn't all that surprised. At this point, keeping Kairi a Princess of Heart would be next to impossible, even if he were to dose Sora and Kairi within the week. The Darkness would still get through, it was so strong now. The only thing left to do at this point was to try and stop her from changing too much once she lost her status. The Darkness would spread throughout her if it was left unchecked, and even someone with as strong a Heart as her would fall for sure.

Damn it, they were going to fall in love with each other, or else!

**Somewhere else in the base...**

Han Solo really was a bitch.

Princess Leia was fully aware of this when she pursued him out of the command center and demanded that he stay. He flirted shamelessly for a few moments, taunted her, and then proceeded to abandon her like the bitch he was.

Bitch.

... Why couldn't she stop thinking about him?

Why did she even care if he was leaving? She didn't like him anyway. Just one pilot lost to their cause wouldn't be a big deal.

Then again, perhaps it would be. Even though his ship was crap, he really was a fabulous pilot, and she was sure that Luke and others who would have flown beside him would miss his presence.

That didn't merit her personal feelings of hate and betrayal at his departure! She _hated the man!_

Maybe Luke could talk him out of leaving. He was on better terms with the smuggler than she was, anyway.

Yeah, she'd go track down Luke. He'd be able to help.

**In the halls...**

Sora was trying to get back to his room while attracting as little attention as he could, but he seemed to fail at this rather badly.

"Sora!"

He groaned and turned to see Kairi coming up to him from behind. He had only been three halls away from his quarters, too...

"Where were you?" Kairi asked, storming up to him, apparently not caring at all for the odd looks and snickers that were coming from the others in the hall.

"Kairi, do you think we could take this-?"

Though Sora never got to suggest where they should take it, because Kairi had slapped him across the face. At this, the several people who had paused to observe the exchange either decided to leave, or to watch and laugh at the teenage angst.

"If you're embarrassed, then you're just going to have to live with that!" Kairi just about yelled. "Now where were you?" "Inside the book," Sora answered honestly.

"And you didn't even invite me?"

"Okay Kairi, I think we need to calm down a bit," Sora said, putting an arm behind her and leading her down the hall, a few of the men they left behind cheering, and shouting 'encore!'.

"You get your hand off of me!" Kairi yelled a turn or two later, and she jumped away from him. They were just outside of Sora's room, but the hall was deserted, much to Sora's relief. "I'm not even mad because of Terra! But you're running off with Zidane and Stitch and having fun all the time, and where am I? It's like he's suddenly just ten times the friend I've ever been? Are you trying to replace Riku or something?"

"What?" Sora asked. "No, of course not! Zidane is nothing like Riku!"

"But what about me?" Kairi yelled, what might have been tears glistening on the bottom rims of her eyes. "Aren't I still your friend? Even when we go into the Hundred Acer Wood you act like I'm... I'm..."

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"You treat me like I'm a girl!"

Sora looked only a little confused. "... Uh-"

"And, I mean, I know that you kinda treated me like one ever since I lost my Heart, but we were still friends! What happened? I'm just like... I'm just some person you know now! It's like you don't even like me!"

"K-Kairi," Sora stammered out, completely bewildered by Kairi's sudden outburst. "Of course I-!"

"Then act like it! You've been treating me like this ever since Riku died! What is your problem?"

"Kairi, calm down!" Sora insisted, grabbing her hand. "Calm down!"

Suddenly, Kairi froze. She glanced from their hands, to Sora's face, to their hands, and Sora's face.

"... I... I... feel..." she mumbled.

_"He's holding my hand..." something in her mind said._

_ "So what?" another part jumped in. "He's done it before!"_

_ "... He's... holding my hand... and he... he's paying attention to me..."_

_ "Get a hold of yourself!"_

Suddenly, Kairi fainted forward into Sora's chest, nearly knocking him over. He grabbed at her and got his arms under hers, stopping her from hitting the ground. He got to his knees and shouted her name once, sounding rather concerned.

She looked up at him, her head lifting slowly as though she was feeling weak, and her eyes looking as though they were about to roll into the back of her head. "S-Sora... I... I lo-"

Her head dropped, and she didn't breathe.

"Kairi? Kairi!"

Sora turned her onto her back and lay her on the cold for of the base, and felt her forehead. She was burning hot. He carried her into the privacy of their room and removed her heavy uniform, tossing it to the side. Now dressed in only the lighter garments she wore underneath, Kairi gave a slight twitch, though she still didn't breathe. Sora thought to perform CPR, but her mouth was clamped shut, and would not open. She twitched more violently, and began to sweat. Sora turned down the heat in the room as much as he could, and then began to cast the more perfected Blizzard spells he had been experimenting with, creating small clouds above her that rained down freezing snow.

"Come on, Kairi..." Sora muttered, taking off more of her clothes, leaving her laying on his bed in nothing more than her plain white camisole.

_"He... he's taking my... clothes off..."_

Still, her temperature did not lower, and she was thrashing about almost as though she was having a seizure. Sora was at a total loss at that point, so he ran to the door and stepped out into the hall, praying that someone would be there.

As luck would have it, Zidane just happened to be sauntering down the hall that that very moment, with Stitch low on the ground behind the thief, attempting to pounce on his monkey tail.

"Hey Sora. What's up with-?"

"Zidane! I need you to run to the medical center and tell them that we have an emergency!"

Zidane yelped in pain as Stitch clawed his tail, though didn't notice it for long, as he caught sight of Kairi in Sora's room, jerking around on the bed. "Stitch!" he yelled at his blue companion, who let go of his tail with a malevolent giggle. "We're doing something important. Now stop acting like an idiot and come on!"

With that, the two sprinted off down the hall, with Stitch wondering just what was going on, having not seen the red-head.

Sora turned back to Kairi, and ran inside to check her again. He managed to hold her still long enough to check her head, which was as hot as ever. He lifted her up, which was much easier than he had thought it would be, as she stopped twitching almost half as bad after he had his arms under her. He turned, left the room, and moved as fast as he could down the halls after Zidane, knowing that if the droids were ready for his arrival, that could make all the difference.

_ "He... he's holding me... I want him to touch me... to kiss me... to take everything off..."_

**The medical ward, several hours later...**

Kairi had been loaded into a huge tube filled with a liquid known as bacta. It had some sort of healing something in it, yata-yata-ya that Sora didn't understand. Kairi was still unconscious, with a mask over her face to let her breathe (which she had started doing shortly after Sora picked her up), and there were other things covering her... places.

Lots of tubes and what-not were stuck into her here and there, and the medical droids were running scan after scan of her body. Sora had remained in the observation room since she had been brought in, and had watched everything as it happened, even though he didn't understand about seventy-five percent of the process. Zidane and Stitch had stayed for a while, but had buggered out eventually and only popped in every now and them. Sora had been informed that, during a bathroom break, Jacob had come in, though Sora did not regret missing the man's visit.

It was nearing midnight when one of the droids finally reported to Sora, "Medically, she is in perfect health."

Sora expected the droid to say something else, but nothing came. "What do you mean?"

"We could find no problems with her respiratory or nervous systems," the droid replied. "We thought for a short time that she may have been drugged, or infected in some way, but we found nothing conclusive. Our best guess is that... she made it happen."

Sora waited, but again, the droid said nothing. "She... made that happen to herself?"

"She triggered the symptoms at her own will, yes," the droid replied. "Mentally, that is to say. Perhaps she has undergone some sort of major emotional trauma recently?"

"Well... well, kinda, but nothing this bad!" Sora said.

"We've no better answer for you, Mr. Sora," the droid concluded. "We will run a few more tests, and then she will be taken out of bacta treatment. She will still most likely need time to recuperate, however."

Sora glanced at Kairi for a moment. "I see..." he muttered. He looked back to the droid. "Thank you very much. I'll be back in a bit."

"Just doing my job, sir," the droid said as it turned and left the observation room, heading back inside. Sora left through the other door, back into the base.

**The hanger...**

Han and Chewbacca were working on the Millennium Falcon, feverishly trying to get the ship repaired and fight-worthy so that they could make their hasty exit. Of course, these things are never that simple.

"What do you mean it's broken?" Han yelled up to his first mate. Chewy looked over the side of the ship at Han, who was working on the bottom. Chewy gave a grunt and a roar, to which Han replied with a "Then fix it, fuzz brain!"

Suddenly, a voice that Han had learned to hate very quickly rang out in the air.

"Captain Solo! Captain Solo, wait!"

Han ran off several words of indecency in his mind as he turned to face a large, robotic man covered in golden plating. At his side was a small, domed robot with legs of sorts at either side, wheels on the bottom.

"3-PO," Han said, the shortened name they often used to refer to the droid more properly known as C-3PO, "I'm not going anywhere, any time soon."

"Ah, well, that's just as well, sir," said the droid, his british accent reminding Han of just how much he hated the golden man. "You see, Princess Leia has a message for you. She's been trying to get to you on your communicator-"

"I switched it off. I don't want to talk to her."

"I see. Anyway, the message: Master Luke hasn't returned yet, and she was wondering if you knew where he was."

R2-D2, the droid at his side, beeped and blooped in his odd language a few times, sounding a bit sad.

"You sure he isn't back yet?" Han asked after a few moments of silence.

"Well I don't know sir, I'm just a messenger."

Han muttered something about recycling metal as he walked towards the rear of the hanger. C-3PO shuffled along behind him, and R2 shifted into drive position, following.

"Deck officer!" Han yelled as he approached a congregation of uniformed men at the rear of the area. "Deck officer! Hey, buddy!" he yelled, spotting the man. He ran over and took no notice of the fact that he was stepping into a conversation that might have been important. "Do you know where Commander Skywalker is?"

"I haven't seen him, sir," he replied, not at all put off by Solo's interruption. Apparently this was a usual thing. "It's possible that he came in through the south entrance."

"It's _possible_? Then why don't you go find out. It's getting dark out."

"Yes sir," said the man, turning to the other he had been talking to, jerked his head, and the two walked off.

"Excuse me sir," C-3PO said to Han. "But might I inquire just what is going on?"

"Why not?" Han asked, throwing an angry glance at the metal man before walking off.

"Hrm. Impossible man," C-3PO said, looking down at R2. "Come along now, we must go back and find Princess Leia. And, between you and I, I think master Luke is in considerable danger..."

**Jacob's room...**

Jacob had not moved from his room since he had come in to find Terra falling asleep, other than when he was informed of Kairi's sudden illness and had departed to check on her. He had returned to his room shortly after, his face a straight as one's face could get, though as soon as he actually closed the door to his room, checked to see that Terra was still asleep, he looked mortified.

He had been able to talk about it so 'matter-of-factly' earlier, and now, what? He was terrified... more terrified than he had been in five years...

No, he could make this right. In fact, this may actually work to their benefit. Er... in the big scheme of things. On a personal level, this wasn't going to help them at all. Who knew what kind of changes Kairi would start going through... complete personality overhaul, probably. As long as she didn't know how to control the Darkness, she wouldn't be herself. If they could stop it from spreading, and expel as much of it as they could from her body, she wouldn't even change that much. But that was a tall order indeed... even a confession of love to Sora wouldn't fix her now...

The door to his room opened. He turned to see Sora, giving him one of the nastiest glares Sora had ever given.

"You had me at hello."

Sora gave what might have been a growl at Jacob's sarcasm before he demanded "What happened to Kairi!"

"That's the million dollar question?"

"Answer me!"

"I think I'll wait until the Lightning Round."

"... What?"

"Nothing. You were saying?"

"... You got me off topic!"

"I have a knack for that."

"What. Happened. To Kairi!"

"Well, are you talking in a spiritual sense or a physical one?"

"WHY DID SHE DROP DOWN AND HAVE A SEIZURE!"

"Well, my best guess is that she lost her status as Princess of Heart."

Sora looked like he might kill someone.

"WHAT?"

Jacob glanced out the corner of his eye at Terra, who had woken up upon Sora's arrival, and had since taken to hiding under the covers like a child.

"I answered your question very well, Sora," Jacob said. "She has lost her status as Princess of Heart."

"HOW?"

"My, aren't we inquisitive today?" Sora lifted his hand as though he was going to summon his Keyblade, but Jacob continued talking. "To be completely honest, I don't know," Jacob answered. "All I can tell you is that Darkness has entered her Heart."

There was a long pause. "... But... how... why... what does it mean?"

But Sora didn't find out exactly what it meant, because at that exact second, the door opened again, and Han Solo walked in.

"Ah, Sora," he said. "I went to the medical ward, cause I figured you'd be with your girlfriend-"

"She's NOT my girlfriend!"

"Touchy! But listen, Luke never checked back in earlier today."

"What?" Sora and Jacob asked in unison, with Terra peaking out from under her covers ever so slightly.

"I don't know. But the speeders won't be ready until tomorrow, and Luke'll be dead by then. We're going out on tauntaun, and having someone who can shoot balls of fire should help."

Sora looked back at Jacob, his face clearly saying 'we're not done yet', and then he turned and followed Han out the door.

Jacob stood there staring at the door for several minutes before Terra managed to find it in her to ask "Uh... what's going on?"

**Elsewhere in the galaxy...**

Agent Texas stepped into a large hanger, where a small squadron of Stormtroopers was awaiting her.

"Good, Tex," Sienex said, something like venom in his voice. "We've... missed you."

"I'm glad you thought I was important enough to delay your briefing," Tex droned shamelessly, falling into line.

"Only because I hate repeating myself," Sienex growled. "We are here," he started, pacing up and down in front of the line. "As most of you know, to carry out the most dangerous, important missions that important figures like the Emperor can possibly commission. We're dispatching today for our first mission: We're to locate a certain world. One unknown to most but a select few across the galaxy."

There was a silence that Sienex might have used for dramatic effect before he said, "The Temple of the Princesses of Heart."

**So, obviously, we're starting this one during 'The Empire Strikes Back'. Hey, wasn't the anniversary for the film just a bit ago? It's fate... or rather, FATE OF HEART!**

** No, I'm not insane. Rather, I'm not any more insane than I was last time around.**

** Disclaimers? Well, most of it was covered last time, but I don't own Hoth or those snow monster things or the tauntauns. I guess. I **_**want**_** to own one of those tauntaun sleeping bags, but I digress... Oh, and Cobb! **_**Inception**_**, baby! I guess Christopher Nolan owns him.**

** And for those of you who are concerned, no, this isn't going to be an all 'Star Wars based' fic. Really, only this bit, the ending, and some little chunks here and there will be Star Wars related. You'll just have to wait and see what that means.**

** Oh, that's right. I own the Temple of the Princesses of Heart. What is it, you ask? My answer:**

** NO SPOILERS!**


	2. Icy Incongruity

** Normally I like to be a chapter ahead before I put a new chapter up, but three is giving me such difficulty that I've actually finished more of four than I have of three. So chapter 2 was actually done when I published chapter 1, but I just didn't want to put it up. Oh well... I guess I'll just have to try harder.**

** Also, if one were to go back and read the first book, there are a lot of plot holes, or at least questions that weren't ever answered (there are some that are so glaringly obvious that I can't believe no one asked about them), and I would like to go on the record saying that when I wrote the first book, I sucked as an author and didn't really know where I wanted to go with the plot. I'm going to re-write the first book eventually, and I'll inform readers when and if I start.**

** Also, I've been struggling lately with plot troubles. While I have just about everything worked out, I suddenly realized that one concept was way to good to waist on FanFiction, and since I plan to become an author, I have decided to save it for later when what I write actually counts. Thus, I'm having to rework some bits of a the plot, but I don't think it should hinder the progression all that much.**

** Anyway, enough jab, on with the show!**

** Chapter 2: Icy Incongruity**

** Hoth**

** Outer Rim**

** 11: 47 PM**

** Planetary Location: Echo Base**

** An hour since Han Solo and Sora departed**

Princess Leia stood staring out at the dark, cold landscape beyond the hanger gate. C-3PO was standing by R2 as the little droid took sweeps of the area for life signatures. Since they hadn't come back in yet, it was safe to assume that they hadn't picked anything up.

She felt something large brush up next to her. She looked up to see Chewy gazing outside as well. He glanced down at her, let out a little whine, then looked back up.

"Princess," came the voice of an approaching officer. She met his gaze as he walked up, and felt anger boil up inside her as she heard the words she knew had been coming. "The temperature is dropping too rapidly. I'm sorry, but the shield doors must be closed."

She glanced back outside one more time, and then back to him, nodding. The massive doors began to slide shut, alerting the droids outside that it was probably time to come in out of the cold. Chewy's low whine got louder and louder the narrower the opening got, and when the doors closed he let out a roar that almost made Leia want to collapse and cry. Even with their specialized suits on, and even with Sora's magic, there was almost no way that they would survive...

"R2 couldn't pick up any traces of them," C-3PO reported. "Though he does admit that the weather is interfering with his scanners."

R2 bleeped and blooped sadly, his body tilting as though he was looking down at the ground.

"R2 says that the odds of their survival are 15,324,781 to one."

As Chewy slumped away and Leia tried to hold back her primal instincts to rip the golden man's head off, C-3PO said, "Though, R2 is known to make mistakes... from time to time."

**Elsewhere...**

_"No! No!"_

_ "But you've got to take a bath!"_

_ "Don't wanna!"_

_ "But you always love it once you get in!"_

_ "No, I don't not! Don't not!"_

_ Kairi, who was completely naked, was standing before a short-haired and shatter-less glasses Jacob. Jacob was sopping wet, and Kairi's hair looked like it might have gotten a bit wet, and her feet were leaving wet footprints wherever she ran in the massive royal bathroom._

_ "Kairi," Jacob said, squatting down and holding his arms in a position that suggested he was about to pounce and grab her. "If you don't take a bath, you're going to smell all icky."_

_ "Not if I put on some'a mommy's pewume!"_

_ "Perfume."_

_ "Pewu-"_

_ Suddenly, Kairi had been swept up into the air by Jacob. She was screaming, and he was laughing, and she was hovering over a large but shallow tub..._

_ "Stop it!" Kairi ordered._

_ "Can't do that, Princess!" Jacob said, before he brought her down and dunked her into the water._

**Present...**

Kairi opened her eyes. Oddly enough, she was met with the same water she had dreamed she had just been thrust into. Only now she was upright, her hair was long, and instead of the warm hands of Jacob around her, there were cold metal objects, and tubes, and what might have been a futuristic diaper. She looked through the liquid, and she could barely make out what appeared to be medial droids. Was her vision impaired, or was it simply the glass wrapped around her?

She couldn't remember what had happened, though she did vaguely remember having an argument with Sora and then feeling all at once confused and wonderful and terrified and in pain...

Sora. The very thought of his name made her blood boil with anger, but at the same time... something she didn't recognize. She felt parts of her body change at the thought of him, changes she had never felt. The changes felt good, and they kept getting stronger as she thought of Sora's smile, and his eyes, and what he must look like when he takes his shirt off...

What?

"Private?" came a droid's voice through the water. There must have been special speakers on the inside of the tube. She nodded to imply that she could hear him. "You've been unconscious for several hours. We're going to remove you in just a moment."

She nodded again, and suddenly she felt something moving through one of the tubes and into her body. She cringed and squirmed at the feeling, but a voice came through that said "Just relax, private."

Kairi really didn't feel like relaxing, what with unknown liquids going into her body, and she wasn't feeling at all trusting... She reached for the tube and tried to pull it out of... where was it going?

Her arm. Okay, she was going to pull it out of her arm. She didn't care what anyone else told her, she was going to pull it out. She reached for it and started jerking.

"Private, you need to stop that," the voice came. "The treatment we are injecting is vital to your recovery."

Kairi didn't care. She didn't want them dumping weird unknown stuff into her body, and she was going to pull the tube out.

On the outside, the droids weren't quite sure exactly how the should reply to this behavior. "Her brain readings are jumping all over the place," a droid reported. "It seems that she is not in control of her actions, though she doesn't realize this."

"Sedate her," another droid suggested. The others agreed, and one hit a button.

Kairi could not find any way to remove the tube going into her arm, but she noticed that another tube, this one much thinner, was going stiff as though something was running through it. She looked for where it was going, but it was attached to her back, and her containment tube was too confining for her to reach it.

Had a mask not been over Kairi's mouth, she would have screamed out in anger. She continued to jerk on the tube going into her arm, when suddenly, she felt weak. But a moment later, she found that she liked the feeling, because a warm and fuzzy sensation came with it. A dopey grin formed under the mask, and she closed her eyes a bit as images of Sora pranced about before her eyes. Her mind filled with cobwebs and stopped running as her entire body shut down all at once. She peed in the diaper involuntarily, but she could have cared less. It actually felt good in combination with all the strange feelings that were coming back around her body as Sora confessed his undying love for her...

Kairi's eyes closed as her urine was sucked out through a tube, the vacuuming air tickling her slightly. The sedative stopped pumping into her, and the medicine going into her arm kept running for a few moments before it too stopped.

The droids ran several last checks on her before they hit a button, sending the liquid pumping upward, and launching her up through the tube and out of sight, all the tubes that had been attached to her body relinquishing their holds. On the floor above, her head surfaced in a small, dark room, where two droids pulled her out of the bacta, removed her bulky coverings, and dressed her in a soft robe before laying her down on a cot to rest.

**Outside in the elements...**

Sora rode behind Han, one hand clutching the back of the smuggler's jacket, the other holding his Keyblade. He'd no way of restoring his energy after casting spells, so he tried to be as conservative as he could. Every time their mount reared back or refused to go any further due to the cold, he cast a special bit of magic he had been working on that called three balls of fire into existence, which hovered around them for a minute or two before they vanished. Sora wasn't sure how many he would be able to cast before he passed out, but the thought of Luke stranded out in the weather forced him to keep going.

They couldn't see for more than a few yards around them due to a terrible blizzard that had kicked up only a few minutes after they had departed; they had almost ridden right off of a cliff a few minutes ago. Sora could never tell what direction they were going or what whey the base was, but at this point, he almost didn't expect them to find a way back.

Han stopped the tauntaun, handed the ropes to Sora, and dismounted, carrying a large scanner. He pulled the two antenna out as long as they would go, and started to walk off into the blizzard.

Sora struggled to keep the beast in place. Even natives of the planet weren't accustomed to the temperatures of Hoth's nights, and this must have been one of the coldest nights in all the time they had been here. He wanted to make some more fire to keep the creature in place, but he had just cast some a bit ago, and Han should have been back at any second.

And back he came. He stumbled a bit through the snow, emerging from the haze of the storm. He climbed up as Sora scooted back to give him room again.

"I picked up a reading in that direction," Han said, pointing.

"Then let's ride!"

Han jerked the ropes, and they turned in the direction Han had indicated, taking off.

**Echo Base...**

Princess Leia had come back to her room, taken a drink, and then, after a few minutes, felt so absolutely exhausted that, despite her concern, she needed to sleep. She collapsed onto her bed without even changing, and fell asleep instantly.

Cobb and two other men appeared out of no where. How they had hidden, how they had gotten in, and all those other impossible questions aren't to be answered. They pulled out a huge silver suitcase, placed it on the ground next to Leia's bed, and opened it. Inside was a machine dominated by a large button on the top. They removed thin wires from it, and stuck one into Leia's wrist. Cobb and another man gathered chairs and sat down, sticking the wires in themselves. They nodded to the third man, who hit the button.

**Jacob's room...**

Though Terra had been rested enough to stay awake up until, and past, midnight, she hadn't anything to do. Jacob had offered to escort her back to her room (a place where she spent very little time), but she turned him down, opting instead to stare at him while he paced up and down. He didn't mind her presence, or her constant fixated gaze on his face.

"So... I still don't understand," Terra said, the first time she had spoken since Jacob had explained the situation to her an hour and a half ago. "I thought that the whole point of being a Princess of Heart was that there was no Darkness in your Heart?"

"It is, it is," Jacob replied, continuing to pace. "But, if the conditions are right, they can lose their status. Darkness can enter their Hearts."

There was silence other than Jacob's feet hitting the ground.

"What is the... purpose of the Princesses?"

Jacob looked at her, but continued walking. "That's a good question. I've done a fair amount of research on the matter, as has King Mickey."

"You mean the mouse that I accidently hugged?"

"That's the one. We know that one of their functions is using Light abilities to combat the Darkness. However, Mickey and I believe that Princesses have been placed in situations where they are least likely to encounter heavy forces of Darkness. So, that can't be their primary function."

"We also know that they open Kingdom Hearts," Terra reminded him. He had given her some limited lectures on the nature of the universe.

"Correct. They open Kingdom Hearts. However, if their primary function is that of a key, why scatter them so? Why not keep them in one place where they can be easily accessed? Or, even better, why bother to make the keys human? It only complicates things."

Terra gave a pondering look, then said "... Because... they didn't want Kingdom Hearts opened?"

"Oh!" Jacob exclaimed, with an 'ah-ha' look on his face. He stopped his pacing, and took a few steps towards her. "Yes, that must be it, mustn't it? You're very clever, Terra, it took us much longer to think of that."

Terra smiled a tiny little, timid smile, her face flushing red.

"But, then, that begs the question of 'who made Kingdom Hearts?'. Or, 'who made the Princesses?'."

"You're forgetting a question," Terra said. She tried in vain to hold back a smile she didn't understand as she pointed out, " 'What is Kingdom Hearts?'."

"Now that," Jacob said. "I don't think we'll ever understand. Mickey spent a fair amount of time inside Kingdom Hearts, and he's only a bit closer to understanding it."

"Do you think there's a way to answer the other questions without knowing what Kingdom Hearts is?"

"I think this is the most talkative you've ever been."

Terra looked down, embarrassed. "I... I didn't... I'm sorry-"

"Sorry?" Jacob questioned. "No, no, you talking is one of the best things that's happened to me in a while."

She looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Every time I see you getting better, showing emotion, and acting human, I just..." he grinned. "I'm glad that I freed you."

Terra blushed even more, and looked down again. "I'm glad you freed me, too..."

**In Kairi's mind...**

_She couldn't breathe. She had tried, and water had rushed into her lungs. She didn't dare to open her eyes. All she could do was scream internally, and thrash her arms and legs about randomly. Some great force was crushing down on her ears, and it hurt..._

_ She felt something large brush up against her. She grabbed onto it, and wrapped herself around it, and felt two arms around her as well. She opened her eyes as much as she could for as long as she could, and barely got a flash of Rinoa's hair floating about in front of her, and a terrified expression on her sister's face._

_ She closed her eyes again, and she could feel Rinoa kicking at the water in a similar way Kairi had been moments ago, though it did nothing more than stop them from sinking quite as fast as they would have been._

_ Kairi felt two more hands reach out and grab her; she clung to Rinoa as though her life depended on it. However, Rinoa let go of her, and Kairi was pried away from her sister by the new hands. Kairi opened her eyes again to see Rinoa drifting away, her eyes closed, her body unmoving..._

_ She surfaced. She coughed and hacked, trying to get air into her tiny lungs, which was difficult since her mouth and wind pipe were filled with water. She spat all of it up as fast as she could, then promptly remembered that her sister was drowning in the water. _

_ "Sissy!" she screamed, thrashing about in her captor's arms. "Sissy!"_

_ "Hold on!" Jacob said, swimming to the edge of the water. He put her on the side, where she shrank back from the water in terror. "Stay here!" Jacob ordered, his glasses gone from his face and water dripping off his hair and nose. He turned in the water, and dove back under._

_ Kairi whimpered, staring at the water, afraid that the two underneath may never come back up._

_ She waited, but there was no sign of them in the dark water. If she hadn't wanted to come here, maybe this wouldn't be happening... oh, it was her fault..._

_ Jacob surfaced, gasping for air. His arm was around Rinoa, who was about his size, despite being four years older than him. Her wet hair fell over her face, and Kairi couldn't tell if she was moving._

_ "Sissy! Sissy!"_

_ Jacob swam to the edge, pulling himself and the elder Princess up. He lay Rinoa flat on the ground, moved her hair away from her face, and Kairi was dismayed to see that she was asleep._

_ "Sissy!"_

_ "Stay back!" Jacob ordered. She obeyed, trembling in her wet clothes, freezing as the air swept by. Jacob leaned down over Rinoa and kissed her, pulled back up, then kissed her again._

_ "Is she okay?"_

_ Jacob didn't reply, but instead began to push down on Rinoa's stomach over and over again. He stopped, and then began kissing her again._

_ "Is she-"_

_ "Quiet!" Jacob ordered, a look like panic on his face as he returned to Rinoa's stomach._

_ "Jacob! Rinoa!"_

_ Kairi looked around to see three people running along the edge of the water towards them, Radiant Garden's castle towering above them in the back ground. Oh, why had she ever left?_

_ "Oh my gosh!" one of the three yelled, though her voice was faint. They were still quite a ways away. "Oh my gosh! Jacob, is she okay?"_

_ Kairi looked back to Jacob, who was kissing her sister again. He pulled back, and suddenly, Rinoa's eyes opened, and she coughed water out of her mouth, breathing heavily as though she had been holding her breath for hours._

_ Rinoa lay on the ground, her chest rising and falling heavily, and she glanced out the corner of her eye at Jacob, who was still kneeling next to her. She glanced at Kairi, and then at the three other kids who had just run up, and then back at Jacob._

_ Rinoa jumped up with energy that didn't seem to be hers, and threw her arms around Jacob. Jacob looked just about as surprised and shocked as anyone ever had for a few moments, but Rinoa let go of him rather quickly and swooped down on Kairi, hugging her as well. _

_ "Wow, that was close," Tifa said._

_ "I told you guys coming up here was a bad idea," Cloud said, panting a little as though he had just run a very long way._

_ "Well, maybe now Rinoa and Kairi'll get some swimming lessons," Lea chuckled nervously._

** Present...**

Sora saw him. Luke was sprawled out in the snow, his face bleeding heavily from two large gashes across his face. His hand was outstretched towards them. He passed out just as they rode up, prompting Han and a rather weakened magic-caster to jump off their mount.

"Kid!" Han yelled as they trudged towards him. "Kid, you all right?"

Sora knelt down next to him and cast another fire spell, which felt like the last one he'd be able to pull out of his hat, as Han turned Luke over.

"... Ben..." Luke moaned, his eyes rolled into the back of his head. "... Ben... Dagobah system..."

"Hang on kid, we're gonna get you out of here..." Han muttered as Sora's fireballs faded. However, the smuggler may not have been correct with that statement, because with a loud, anguished cry, their tauntaun fell over in the snow, dead.

"It's subscribed to the cold!" Han yelled, as Luke continued to moan, "Ben... Ben... Yoda... Keyblades..."

Sora reeled back at the last word, though he didn't have any time to contemplate it. "Damn! Comlink's useless in this storm!" Han yelled, tossing the radio down next to the dead animal in anger. "We're going to have to camp out!"

"Here?" Sora asked.

"Nah, I was thinking we could wonder around for a bit until we found a beautiful rainbow valley!"

"Gotta keep'm... Ben... Darkness... Yoda..."

"Han, I think we should listen to-"

"He can tell us when he can speak lucid, kid!" Han said. "And, preferably, when we're n_ot in hell_!"

"Right, right," Sora muttered, though the words were lost in the storm.

"Grab his light-thingy!" Han said, glancing back at their dead mount.

"Why?"

"Just do what I say!"

Sora detached Luke's lightsaber from the man's belt, and handed it to Han. "Drag him over to the tauntaun!" Han ordered as he walked to the beast, igniting the sword and slicing the monster's chest open. "It may not smell like roses, but it'll keep em' warm!"

Sora dragged Luke to the snow next to the tauntaun, which was now covered with intestines and the like.

"Gah..." Han muttered as he removed equipment from the saddle. "And I thought they smelt bad... on the _outside_!"

**Echo Base...**

Kairi's eyes opened.

"Try to relax," came the voice of a medical droid. "You've got someone here to see you."

"... S-... S-Sora?" Kairi asked, sitting up slowly and shaking her head.

"Not exactly."

Jacob's voice cut through the haze. For some reason, she felt angry and scared all at once; both of the feelings felt foreign.

"How do you feel?" he asked, his black hair now distinguishable through the blurry mess her eyes were taking in.

"... Don't know..." she replied, rubbing her neck. "Feel kinda weird..."

"What kind of weird?" Jacob demanded.

"... What's that supposed to mean?" Kairi asked as his glasses came into view.

"Like, what's weird about it?"

"... Dunno... feels kinda... good weird, though..."

"I'm taking her back to my room," Jacob told the droid.

"We'd appreciate that, sir," the droid replied. "She's caused us nothing but trouble in her waking moments. You should know, sir, that she behaved somewhat erratically while in bacta treatment-"

"Hey!" Kairi yelled, jumping up, though it was obvious that this had taken a great burst of energy, and she would probably collapse any second. "Wazzzup with that stuffs-es that you up put into my arm when I was in that tubby thingy?" she demanded before collapsing forward. Jacob swooped in and caught her, and allowed the girl to put an arm around his shoulder.

"Thank you, doctor," Jacob said as he escorted Kairi out of the room, her feet dragging slightly on the ground.

"Kairi, listen to me," his voice came as they entered a white hallway.

"Yeah?"

"I need you to tell me exactly what feels weird."

"Oh, nothen's weird..." she said. "I feel dandy!"

"That may be so," Jacob said. "But Sora's very worried about you, and he wants to know what happened-"

"Sora!" she breathed, nearly falling. Jacob had to duck down and grab her with both arms to stop her from hitting the ground. She giggled, and looked down at herself, then at Jacob. "There's one of the weird things!"

"What weird thing?"

"Well, my shirt's kinda pinching down on my breasts, you know?"

"... Right." He lifted her back up, and continued walking. "Listen Kairi, I'm going to need you to drink something when we get back to the room-"

"Drink something?" Kairi asked. "Does it come out of a tube?"

"No. It comes out of a glass."

"Oh. That's better."

They walked back to Jacob's room with occasional comments from Kairi ("Have you ever noticed that it's really cold here?" "How's Terra doing?" "Hey, where's Sora?" "Sora!" "Hey, when did it get so hot in here?"), but absolute silence from Jacob. They walked in to find Terra making something with Jacob's brewing machine. He had hidden the love potions while she worked on something else.

"Is it almost ready?" Jacob asked as Kairi giggled something about a memorable Valentines Day on Destiny Islands, which had something to do with Sora accidentally shoving her off a dock and then diving in to pull her out even though she could swim.

"Just about," Terra answered. "I read the instructions five times before I started, and I looked at them between every step."

"Good. How much longer?"

"Not much." She glanced back at the two of them as sat Kairi down on the cot. "Is she as bad as you thought she would be?"

"No. Much better, actually. It could be the sedative they gave her, though."

She removed a beaker from the brewer; one that glimmered with Light. She handed it to Jacob, who looked to Kairi. "Need you to drink this, Kairi."

"That kinda looks like a tube. What is it that I'm gonna drink?"

"Special stuff."

"Hrm. Well, I don't think I should..."

"Don't worry. I'm your bodyguard, remember? I'd never try and hurt you."

"I guess that's true..."

"So will you drink it?"

"... Uhhhh..."

But Jacob didn't have the time for 'uhhh', so he walked up to her and put the beaker to her open mouth, forcing her to drink the concoction down.

When she was done, Kairi's eyes and mouth closed, and she cringed. Her whole body went ridged, and she opened her eyes.

Light blared out of them, and what might have been smoke made of Light came out of her eyes and mouth.

Jacob stepped back, and Terra stood behind him, trembling a bit. Kairi sat up, and she spoke with many voices that were not hers. _"State your names."_

"I am Jacob, and this is Terra."

_"Full names."_

"We do not know hers; I do not use mine."

_"Fitting. Is she to see the following events?"_

"Yes."

Kairi's body nodded, then stood. _"Why do you seek to confabulate with Isamahii, formerly the Light of Kairi the Princess of Heart?"_

"Several reasons," Jacob answered.

_"And you expect me to remain in this fallen form long enough to answer them?"_

"I seek the Temple of the Princesses of Heart."

_"What gives you authority to approach such a holy place?"_ the voices asked, their tones escalating slightly.

"I've questions you cannot answer."

_"And you think,"_ the voices started. _"That you can find something there that we, the very essence of Light past, cannot divulge?"_

"Jacob..." Terra murmured, shrinking back even more.

"I cannot tell you my reasons for seeking this place," Jacob replied, gazing into the glowing eyes, fearing nothing.

_"You think that your petty secrets can't be trusted to one of the most honest and pure existence in the universe?"_

"Another question, then," said Jacob, changing the subject. "What is the largest threat to the balance of the universe?"

_"Darkness, of course."_

"Indeed," Jacob responded, though his tone suggested he did not agree. "One more question for now, though you may hear from me again in the future."

_"Do not expect an answer this question or any future callings," _the voices responded.

"Who has inherited the Light Isamahii, exalted ones?"

There was a long pause. Then, the voices answered, _"Someone... _very_ close to your Heart."_

Jacob raised an eyebrow under his hair. "What?"

_"I have no interest in answering any more questions," _the voices said. _"Perhaps, Mr. Jacob," _they said, Kairi's eyes narrowing at Jacob,_ "Darkness is not the biggest threat to the universe. Perhaps it is men like you, who meddle into things that they ought not involve themselves."_

The Light vanished from Kairi's mouth and eyes, and she collapsed forward into Jacob's arms again, causing Terra to jump in surprise. She was conscious, but barely.

"Are you okay, Kairi?" Terra asked, coming out from behind Jacob, but still keeping her distance from the red-head.

"Don't... dunno..." she replied, her voice muffled in Jacob's shirt. "Feel... ugh..."

"Get her some water," Jacob ordered Terra. She nodded and walked out, with Kairi muttering, "... Thanks..."

"Yeah," Jacob said. He moved her over to his cot, sitting her down. "I need you to hold still."

"Not... a problem," Kairi replied. Jacob moved to his computer and opened it up, the reading on Kairi already waiting for him.

The computer was offering a time-lapse, indicating that there had been a lot of activity since she had walked in. He played it.

The scan started the moment they entered, the visuals showing the activity around Kairi's Heart. Darkness had been flowing in freely, and had taken almost a third of her Heart over, with the Light inside offering very little resistance. He waited until he had given her the drink, at which point the Light surged forward, forcing all the Darkness out of her Heart and even fighting some of hovering outside her Heart. It stopped, and Darkness came back in, though only a small amount. It didn't look like it was flowing freely anymore, and her Heart was fighting back, though he had seen the resistance before: It was the resistance that a Heart defaultly put up.

Kairi had been invaded, and it was going to keep coming until something was done about it.

**The next morning...**

A loan orange and white vehicle sped through the sky above Hoth, the new white snow and crisp sunny morning one of the best they had seen their entire stay.

"Echo Base, this is Rouge Two," the pilot said. "I'm picking up something on my scanner; it's small, but it could be a life form."

It swung low over a hill, switching it's frequency to smaller, local signals. "This is Rouge Two. Captain Solo, do you copy... Lieutenant Sora, do you copy?"

Lower... the signal was getting stronger. He gazed down at the landscape intently, looking for any signs of the Rebels.

"Commander Skywalker... Do you copy? This is Rouge Two. Captain Solo, do-"

The radio cackled. "Rouge Two, nice of you to drop by! Hope we didn't get you up to early!"

The pilot laughed at Captain Solo's usual sarcasm. "Echo Base, this is Rouge Two. I've found them. Repeat: I've found them."

He could see Han emerging from what he now recognized as a tent, completely covered by snow. The man waved up at him as he few over, preparing to land.

**Echo Base...**

Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora. Sora.

The name had been pounding in her head ever since she had been told of his heroic dive into the cold of Hoth. She hadn't slept, despite Jacob's insistence that she did. She didn't know why he had suggested such; she had already spent a lot of time out of it recently.

She didn't know what was wrong with her, or why she had the attack in the hall outside of Jacob's room. The man claimed that he didn't know, but she was sure he was lying. She had resorted to asking Terra, who, after a few moments of stupefied silence and confusion, had started humming and avoiding eye contact.

She didn't feel all that wrong, just... well, a bit different. She couldn't pinpoint anything specific, but she knew it was there, and she knew that some of it felt good. But she also felt invaded. And confused. Some of the changes felt physical, but others were all in her head. She was thinking about things that she didn't think she had ever thought about, and she was feeling things she couldn't describe. Images of Sora kept running through her mind, and even though she was doing her best to ignore them, when she did think about him, she felt angry and lightheaded and flustered and confused and hot and embarrassed and so many other things. She couldn't explain half of them, or even distinguish them from other emotions. She tried to single out and count the new emotions she was feeling (or at least, that's what she_ thought_ they were), but she discovered that this was just as difficult as figuring out why and how someone had decided to invent art one day. It was spontaneous, and it made her feel as though she had been missing something her whole life.

She didn't like it. It made her feel insecure. Like... instead of something bad had just happened to her, something bad had_ been _happening to her the last fifteen and a half years of her life.

Sora... Oh, he had to be okay, he had to be! The last time she had talked to him, she had yelled at him, and then she had almost died, or whatever it was she had done, and then he left without knowing if she would be okay...

She didn't want Sora to worry about her. No, she wanted him to be happy, and _she_ wanted to be happy, and she wanted all the weird feelings in her head and around her body to just explain themselves, damn it!

"Kairi?"

She looked up. It was seven in the morning. She had spent the entire night pacing her room, screaming in frustration, pounding her fists against random stuff, and... well, she didn't really know what she had been doing. It had been an out of body experience.

"Yeah, Terra?" she asked, looking at the blond.

"Search party just called in. They've found them."

She moved for the door, suddenly feeling feverish. "Where are they?" she asked.

"On their way in. They should be here any minute."

Kairi the two went for the hanger, with Kairi running and Terra doing a bit of a light jog behind.

**Shortly...**

The speeder was flying in just as they arrived. A crowd was already assembled to great the rescued. They moved towards it as fast as they could, ducking under and through electrical equipment scattered around the area. The ship's hatch was opening, and Kairi could see Han climbing out, supporting Luke, who looked rather spaced out. Several personnel rushed forward to take Luke, and then escorted him away, presumably to the medical ward.

After the pilot, Sora emerged, but Kairi only got a fleeting glimpse of him before he dismounted into the crowd. _"I hope he's looking for me..."_

He emerged from the swarm of people after a few moments to be greeted by Kairi, who threw herself around him.

"Oh, Sora! I'm so sorry I yelled at you... if that had been the last thing I had ever said to you-"

"Kairi, I-"

"-I would have never forgiven myself! Oh, you're so brave, Sora! Going out in the cold with Han to save Luke! I can't believe-!"

"Kairi!"

She stopped, and, realizing just how ridiculous she was being, let go of him. She timidly avoided his eyes, instead trying to burn a hole in his boots with her gaze. "Sorry..."

"Hey, it's fine," Sora said. She looked up at him again. "Just... Look, I'm fine, okay? Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"... Well, I've been feeling kind of weird ever since I woke up," she replied. She glanced at the crowd, then back at Terra, who was idling a few feet to their rear, then she whispered to Sora. "I think Jacob knows what's wrong with me, but he won't tell."

Sora opened his mouth to tell her about the very brief exchange he had with Jacob before setting out last night, be he decided not to. He'd go to Jacob first. It would probably turn out to be dangerous to tell her or something, what with the way Jacob worked.

Instead, he said, "Well, Jacob knows lots of stuff. I'll got talk with him later." He, too, glanced around. "Listen, let's go to the medical ward and check on Luke, then... do you want to go to the Wood?"

"The two of us?"

"The two of us." He looked over her shoulder. "We can bring Terra if you want. Or Zidane."

"Zidane? Ick."

"He helped save you."

"... He did?"

"Yeah."

"... Well, he'd still be a sexist pig. Let's just the two of us go, okay?"

"Not Terra?"

"... No, not Terra."

Sora smiled, though it wasn't the warm, amazing smile that Kairi hadn't been able to stop thinking about. It was shallow, and concerned. She could hear something coming from his Heart... but it was even harder to make out than before. Both his and Terra's Hearts seemed much quieter than usual. Jacob's echoing emptiness had felt distant as well.

"Alright," Sora said at last. "Just us."

They walked out of the hanger, Terra again bringing up the rear. Sora noticed that Jacob was following them too, but despite his distance, he wasn't making any effort to conceal his pursuit. When they arrived at the medical ward, Sora asked why Jacob had been following them, to which Jacob replied, "I wasn't following. Just going to the same place as you."

Sora was skeptical, but didn't press.

They were informed that Commander Skywalker was probably going to make a full recovery. Once they warmed him back up, treated the wounds across his face, and managed to stop him from mumbling ("Ben... Yoda... Keyblades... Ben..."), he would probably be fine.

Han and Leia both stayed, as did Jacob. Terra wondered off, probably for Jacob's room or the mess hall. Sora and Kairi slipped out after a while, and headed off for Cid's ship.

Sora couldn't help but notice that Kairi had been very quiet since the hanger, despite smiling most of the time. He wanted to think that it was because she was going to the Hundred Acer Wood again, but he doubted it. She kept throwing him sideways glances, and whenever he caught her doing it, she looked away and a bit of color flushed to her cheeks.

They got out into the warm morning air (and warm was relative, as it was about fifteen below freezing), and walked to the Shera, the wind whipping their hair about. They were about to board when Kairi suddenly asked, "Sora... do you think I'm... pretty?"

Sora stopped in his tracks. Kairi stopped too. Sora turned to face her slowly. "... W... what did you ask?"

"... Never mind."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"I just couldn't hear you over the wind. Are you sure you don't want to ask again?"

She shook her head, her hair flapping about before her eyes. "I'm sure. Sorry, forget I said anything."

They boarded the ship, and were greeted by Cid half way to Sora's room, where he kept the book. "You two back again?"

"What, don't you get lonely in here?" Kairi asked with a subtle smirk. Sora knew there wasn't any real humor backing it; she was trying to get him to forget about the question he had heard very clearly.

"Me? Lonely? Hell no. All I need is my booze and some cigars." He bit his lip. "If I ever do get bored, I go inside. Plus, I've got the video chat, you know? Them chipmunks from Disney Castle always got something interesting and technical to talk about."

"Right," Sora replied. "Well, we're going to the book, so..."

"Yeah. Right. I'll get you out if something comes up." He lifted an eyebrow. "Anyone else know you're here?"

"No," Kairi answered. "And they don't need to."

Cid frowned deeper. "I see..." He walked off, muttering about teenagers and alcohol.

**Echo Base...**

Han Solo and Princess Leia were among a small group of people gathered around a computer console in the command center.

"It's moving fast. Too fast to be one of those snow creatures," said the woman opperating the computer.

"One of ours?" Han asked.

"No," the commanding officer answered. "We don't have anyone in that sector."

"It's reading like a droid," the woman offered as she finished a scan of the unknown object.

"Imperial probe droid?" Leia questioned nervously.

"I doubt it, Princess," said the general. "They couldn't have found us."

"Well maybe they're looking for us, huh?" Hun suggested sarcastically. "Me' n Chewy 'll go have a look at it. There any speeders available?"

**Elsewhere...**

Maleficent cursed. The reading was inconclusive, but her erratic behavior... this would complicate things.

_"Why would she lose her status now?"_ she pondered silently, the gloom of her castle drifting about her. _"Perhaps Jacob triggered it intentionally... no, he has no way of knowing what we are planning... no matter. We will begin sweeping all star systems that could produce Princesses of Heart, and soon, we'll have the new one."_ She smiled. _"Curious. I wonder what other strange events will fall upon us soon?"_

She turned away from the single glowing orb that floated in the middle of the gloomy room, and walked out. She entered a dark hallway, filled with dark green mist, and massive, spiky thorns. She walked for a few moments before she reached another door, which she entered to find the cockpit of the massive castle/ship. Pete was at the controls, as he always was. Now that she had gathered some decent villains up, and had gained their trust, she could start being nasty to him again and not be concerned with losing a pawn.

"Good day, your evilness!" Pete said happily. He liked flying the ship. It must have reminded him of his days back on the steamboat, cruising about Timeless River. "What can I do for you today?"

"Pete, a complication has arisen," she said. "I need you to begin a sweep of the galaxy for Princess of Heart locations.

He looked back at her. "The galaxy, ma'am? Shouldn't we just check each of the worlds they're from?"

"There is a _new_ Princess somewhere. She was born within the last twenty-four hours. That means that the signal will still be strong for at least a week."

"But, your evilness... we can barely pick up on the Princesses when we know where they are!"

"That's why it is imperative that we scan now, you buffoon!" she exclaimed. "Now hurry up!"

"A full sweep could take days, Maleficent," Pete said, turning back to the controls. "But it should be done within the week. I'll tell you right away when I find something."

The witch gave him a curt nod, though he did not see it. She turned and walked out, her cloak flowing about behind her in the mist.

**In the Hundred Acer Wood...**

An hour in the real world. That was about three in Pooh's book. Sora and Kairi both had a great time, though it was apparent that Kairi was distracted. Though none of the animals other than Rabbit (who was a very practical person) voiced concern, everyone seemed to know that something was up. She and Sora frequently found themselves in situations where she brushed up against him, or even held him for a few moments, or just... gazed at him.

It was quite unsettling for the Keybearer. From the way that she acted, and the way that she moved, and the way that she just seemed to be concealing something, he knew: this girl wasn't the Kairi he grew up with.

She had, of course, changed as she got older. Everyone does. But ever since started this quest against the Empire, she had started changing even more. He didn't really notice it for a long time, but he shrugged it off when he finally did. He had just assumed that the whole ordeal and being gone from home for so long was the meaning of it.

A lot of the changes seemed to have been brought on by the memories of Radiant Garden, or at least Jacob. Perhaps it was a coincidence, he thought. Jacob, while a bit odd and always mysterious, had never done anything to hurt Kairi in the long run, and he doubted that he ever would. Jacb loved Kairi, and Sora knew that.

Or, at least, it was as close to love as Jacob could get. Something about him felt... broken.

But now Kairi was broken. Rather, she was as broken as everyone else was. She had been pristine before. A perfect, shining jewel, set apart from the rest of the universe. But now she had been brought down to his level, and it just didn't set well. He could see the changes in her right now, plain as day. Was it because it had come on so suddenly, that she couldn't cope? That would make sense. Perhaps, with time, she would start acting more like the Kairi he used to know.

Sora was brought out of his thoughts by Kairi's voice. "Sora? You okay?" He shook his head and glanced at her. "You were all spaced out."

She was standing just a bit too close to him for it to be accidental. They were on a small bridge near the outskirts of the Wood, and thus, the book. The woods around there were quiet, as none of the animals lived this wide spread. Tigger and Roo often went exploring in this 'vast' unknown area, and everyone gathered on the bridge every now and then to play 'Pooh Sticks', a game where everyone tossed a stick into the water and waited to see which one would come out on the other side of the bridge first.

They had been playing the game just a few minutes ago before someone, possibly Piglet, suggested that they go back to his house for some tea. While Sora knew that 'tea' just meant a meal, the word never really set well with him. Besides, he wasn't very hungry anyway. He had decided to stay behind for a bit, and apparently, Kairi had doubled back to retrieve him.

"Yeah, I guess I was spaced out," Sora replied, not looking at her, opting instead to gaze down at the river as it flowed by. "I was just thinking."

"About what?" Kairi more demanded than asked.

"You," he answered truthfully, though he regretted it moments later, realizing what that might entail.

"Really?"

"Well, not just you. Other stuff too."

Kairi's voice sounded a bit disappointed. "Oh. Like what?"

"Jacob. The Empire and the Rebellion. All kinds of stuff."

There was a long pause. "You know," Kairi said. "I'm not all that hungry."

"Neither am I." He glanced at her. He was again met with a sight that felt unfamiliar: Kairi had appeared in the book wearing not her usual pink and white attire, but instead a shoulder less tube top, a bit like Terra's, and skinny jeans. The tube top was orange, like autumn, and had a sort of floral design along it's side. Though instead of flowers, there were dead leaves.

She noticed him looking at her outfit again. "... Why do you think it changed?"

"I don't know."

She looked all the more awkward. After a moment of silence, she timidly asked, "So... how do I look?"

"Very pretty," Sora answered without thinking. "It looks good on you."

She smiled a smile that was much smaller than it was supposed to be. The strain to hold it back was apparent on her face. "Thank you," she said, the corner of her lip quivering and jumping.

They turned and walked off down a dirt path through the woods, a slight spring in Kairi's step. Sora thought he had never felt heavier.

After they had been walking for a few minutes, the only sound the crunch of leaves and the tweeting of birds, Sora said "Kairi?"

He instantly regretted it. She twisted, as though in slow motion, towards him. The orange light of twilight shone through the breaks in the trees, down on her figure. As she turned, a gust of wind blew by, tossing leaves up into the air around her, and her hair flowed in their direction.

"Yes?"

Sora couldn't speak for a few moments, but soon the leaves had gone, and the wind had blown the branches in the way of her light, and he got the words out. "I-I was thinking, maybe we should just leave. They may be wanting us back at Echo Base."

"Cid said he would come and get us..." she turned away from him again and kept walking. Sora caught himself looking at her ass, which she seemed to be showing off a bit more than was natural. "Besides, we've only been gone about an hour, right?"

"I kinda wanted to check in on Luke, though."

She turned back. "Oh... right. I suppose we could go back."

"We could come back right after, Kairi," he offered. "Let's just go and tell everyone that we're leaving for now, but should be back in..."

He looked up at the trees again, the orange light still shining down on certain patches of the ground.

"On second thought, it'll be night here soon. Maybe we should just come back some other time."

Kairi looked disappointed, but she nodded in agreement.

**Out in the elements of Hoth...**

A large black droid of some sort hovered about over the icy landscape. It had many shapes covering its body, suggesting cameras of some sort. Below its main body were large claws and many other such receptacles, giving it the look of something hellish.

The droid turned. It had detected some movement off to the side. Something brown and furry, clearly not indigenous to the harsh climate of Hoth, had just ducked behind a snowbank.

It moved to attack the creature, but failed to notice one small detail: the creature was a decoy.

Han popped up from behind another snow bank opposite of Chewy, his blaster at the ready. He sent two shots the droid's way, then drew back as it exploded, much to easily to have been caused by his shots.

**Echo Base...**

"Not much left to identify it by," Han reported, gesturing to the pile of now scrap metal on the table before them. "I didn't hit it that hard; must have had some sort of self destruct mechanism."

"It's an Imperial probe droid, alright," Leia said, picking up one of the pieces and turning it over in her hand. "That probably means they know we're here. And that they're coming."

**An hour or so later...**

The base had been thrown into what Jacob had called an 'Orderly Panic'. Wiping the computers would take time, as would evacuating personnel. They had no idea how close the Empire was; they could arrive at any given moment, ready to strike. As long as their shields held, they would be safe from a bombardment, but everyone knew that holding off an Imperial ground strike with their limited resources would be next to impossible.

Things had only gotten worse, especially with respect to Sora's nerves. Luke had been removed from medial treatment, and one of the first things he had to say was that the Keybearer and his group should stay as close as they could to the Rebellion.

"Kid, you were hallucinating out there," Han insisted.

"No, I swear, I saw Ben, and he said that they needed to stay close."

Sora felt all the more awkward. He hated the feeling of responsibility, even if he didn't really understand what he was responsible for.

Leia didn't help, with her hastened entrance to the conversation, which instantly became an argument. "I don't know what you saw, Luke, but the safest thing to do now is for Sora to get as far away from us as possible. He's more important than the entire Rebellion, and we can't risk him going down if we do."

"Then can I ask why he was even here in the first place?" Jacob questioned.

"I've just got a feeling. Like something big is going to happen."

"So do I," Luke said. "I feel like something bad is going to happen if they leave."

"Well, it's a good thing my decision outweighs yours, isn't it?" Leia said, a bit snidely. A bit out of character, actually. "Besides, the General agrees with me."

"You know," Jacob came in again, propping his feet up on a convenient table and putting his hands behind his head. "If Sora is so damn important, maybe it should be his decision."

Everyone (Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy, C-3PO, R2, and Jacob) looked at the Keybearer. He shrunk back ever so slightly, a look on his face that clearly said 'I'm not brave enough to make decisions for myself'.

"Er..." Sora glanced at Leia, then at Luke, as though sizing up both of the arguments. "Well, I suppose we could leave for a while, then regroup with you if it's safe. Or if we aren't busy. But, to be honest, I haven't exactly had a real quest for about a year now."

"Sounds like a compromise to me," Han said. "That good enough, your worship?"

Leia scrunched her nose, expressing a slight feeling of defeat. "Sure. I suppose."

"I'll tell Cid to get the Shera ready, then," Jacob said, swinging his legs down from the table and standing.

"No, wait," Sora suddenly said, moving to cut him off from the door. "I... I want to stay and help. Help hold the Imperials off."

There was a pause, but Jacob eventually looked to Leia. "Is that okay?"

She shook her head. "I... I dunno..."

"We'll still make it out. And I'd rather help make sure other people are safe than just run off before the danger even gets here."

"Don't try and be too much of a hero, Sora," Luke said.

"No, that's my job," Jacob replied before he and Sora departed.

**Shortly...**

"Action? Wait, the kind with guns or the kind with females?"

"Shut up, you sexist pig!"

"What? I'm trying to lighten the mood!"

Kairi growled at him. "Look, they're coming, so you need to get ready to leave. Can you do that or can't you?"

"Can't? I don't know the meaning of that word."

She turned and left Zidane to his... whatever he does when no one's looking. She had felt the urge to go and yell at him a bit after she spent a few minutes yelling at herself for being so useless in a fight. What everyone must think of her! What Sora must think of her...

WHY COULDN'T SHE STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM?

She went back to her room and angrily packed her her few belongings. She was so blinded by rage that she didn't even notice when she tossed an orange tube top and skinny jeans she hadn't owned before into her bag.

She picked up the two bags that held what she had brought from the ship, then started walking through the base towards the Shera. She didn't notice anyone else in the base, or hear any of the voices that came in over the intercom. All she heard was her thoughts, her wishes.

_"Oh, I hope Sora doesn't try and stay behind and fight... What if he does something stupid and gets hurt? What if he dies? I've got to convince him to leave as quickly as we can..."_

She was trudging through the snow to the Shera. She hadn't even noticed she had left the base; she was so deep in thought that she was actually surprised that when she looked up, she was standing in her room on the Shera. Her legs had ghosted her all the way there.

Had Cid noticed her come in? She didn't remember him trying to talk with her. Then again, she didn't remember walking out here.

_"Ugh... I hate this... Why won't it all just explain its self, at least?"_

She dumped her bags, and walked back off to the base, again not remembering the transit from the Shera to the door of Sora's room.

She hadn't wanted to come here; she had wanted her room again. But she was here, and she didn't get the chance to correct her ghost walking mistake. The door opened, and she was met with Sora, who heaved a great, long sigh at the sight of her.

"Sora? No, I wasn't here to see you, I'm just in the wrong place!"

"... Right. It's okay, Kairi."

She turned and walked off again, a bit faster than she normally would have.

**Just a bit later...**

Imperial ships had entered the area above Hoth. They had only gotten three transports of the seven away, and that wasn't counting the Shera. The hanger was filled with Rebel pilots going to their ships, be they speeders to hold off the ground assault, or space fighters to defend the fleeing transports. Another prominent activity to be observed was Han and Chewy's frantic repairs to the Millennium Falcon.

"What? No! NO! That one goes _there_, and_ that_ one goes _there_! Right? Right!"

Some soldiers were departing through the hanger door as well, heading for the trenches. Already, troops were posted up at the trenches and turrets a fair distance away from the base, though only a few men had been brave enough to volunteer for such a dangerous position. Oddly, Zidane and Stitch had been among those brave souls. Sora had found himself in one of the trenches closer to the base, and holding a heavy rifle he had no idea how to use efficiently.

Jacob had considered joining them, but he opted instead to assist with the wiping of the computers. Terra was standing at his side, looking as flustered as she usually did. Leia was also there, supervising the evacuation and just about everything else by running to and from each computer console. They were prepping something called an 'Ion Cannon', a weapon that would incapacitate a Star Destroyer long enough for a few ships to slip past. They managed to get two transports and a few fighters out before the ground assault started, which was far below the quota Leia had wanted to reach.

Sora felt very out of place standing next to men a good deal older than he was, but soon forgot about than when a much worse feeling set in. He wasn't sure exactly what the feeling was, but he came on when suddenly, the ground started to vibrate.

"Imperial walkers!" the radio crackled, the sound coming from one of the advance positions. "They're approaching, and preparing to fire! Look out!"

Sora could barely see the walkers in the distance, their massive hulking bodies looking like gray lumps on the white horizon. However, they gained quite a bit more attention when six massive red lasers flew in their direction, impacting the snow surrounding him.

Everything twenty feet to his left was obliterated, the white bodies of Rebel soldiers tossed into the air. The blast knocked him to the ground of the trench, though the man next to him reached down and pulled him up, yelling "What good are you, huh, kid?"

Everyone else had started firing, though Sora doubted that their shots would get anywhere near close enough to hit the vehicles. The large turrets behind him began to fire, though one of them was destroyed by another volley of laser fire, metal chunks of machinery flying in every direction.

Sora wasn't sure what good it would do, but he took as good aim as he could and pulled the trigger of his gun, lasers flying forth. It felt wrong to be holding such a weapon, after welding a sword for so long. However, he didn't have much more time to contemplate this, as another blast threw several tons of snow up into the air and brought them crashing down on top of his section of trench.

**The forward trenches...**

"This is the shit, huh?"

"Define shit, kid!"

Zidane pressed up harder against the side of the trench which faced the metal monsters. Another blast when off, though it was apparent that the walkers weren't aiming for them. Only a few shots had come their way, and they had sustained minimal casualties. Zidane and Stitch wound up staying low next to another man with a scruffy black beard and beady eyes. The man had a rocket launcher strapped to his back, though he had told them such a weapon would do little good.

"They're too heavily armored. If they deploy any of the smaller ones, I'll have a chance, but we don't even have to worry about those anyway."

Turned out, they had deployed a smaller walker; it stood on two legs instead of four, and had a small cockpit that looked to hold two or three people. It, unlike it's larger brothers, focused it's firepower on the small, seemingly unimportant trenches Zidane had signed up for.

"You gonna take shot at that thing?" the thief asked as a shower of show came down on them.

"I'm waiting for a closer target," the man replied. "See if you can't get a round off at the pilot first, though."

Zidane peaked over the top of the trench ever so slightly to see two small windows on the two-legged walker, and one had a head visible behind it. He aimed and pulled down the trigger, issuing the rapid fire of laser beams. Most of them splattered over the front of the vehicle harmlessly, but one managed to strike the pilot on the shoulder, knocking him away from the controls.

"Take your shot now!" Zidane yelled, ducking back down. The man popped up and fired two rockets out of the double-barrelled weapon, each one hitting home and causing the vehicle to burst into flames, tipping over and falling into the snow.

"We are so bad ass," Zidane said, looking at Stitch. "What do you think we should do now, buddy?"

"Squish stinky heads! Imperials gonna die!"

The man looked up again. "Well, we're screwed now. One of the larger ones is deploying Stormtroopers to take care of us."

"Crap," Zidane muttered. "Stitch, reload him, and I'll hold these guys off." He looked up again, and pointed his gun at the ropes the troopers were zipping down. Taking the time to line up a perfect shot, he let a few shots fly, slicing the very top of one of the ropes. It fell, as did the men riding it. While the lower ones landed in the snow without too much injury, others had a too far of a drop, and died on impact.

Zidane began to aim for another rope, but the men already on the ground decided that he was a problem and began firing at him. A close shot burned through a bit of his hair, alerting him to the fact that he should probably duck. In his wake, the other man popped up, his rocket launcher pointed at the advancing infantry. He let both of his rockets fly just as two lasers hit him in the shoulder.

"Gah-!" He fell backwards as the barrage of lasers stopped, the sound of screaming Stormtroopers filling the air. Zidane ducked down over him to have a better look at the wound just as a few of the troops who had been clear of the explosion began firing again.

"You okay, man?" the thief asked, looking at the burn holes in his clothes.

"I-I'll be fine. J-just my sh-shoulder, after all..."

"This is a lost freaking cause," Zidane muttered, grabbing the launcher. "Stitch, load me."

"Ih!" the blue creature said, quickly loading two shells into the launcher. Zidane nodded curtly at him before popping up and firing the two missiles at the group of soldiers again. He tossed the launcher to the side the second the missiles were gone, grabbing his rifle again. He unloaded the rest of the clip in the general direction of the Stormtroopers before tossing it to the side, ducking down again.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" he said. The man got up clumsily, but stayed low enough to be concealed by the trench. The three of them started moving towards a larger snowbank that would get them out of sight of the battle, so they could sneak back towards the air field.

**Rear trenches...**

A massive ball of fire penetrated the surface of the snow, and a lone teenager climbed out. He panted for air for only a moment before he fired off another ball of fire down what used to be a trench, melting a good deal of snow and lightening the weight upon his comrades, hopefully giving them the ability to escape.

He looked back out that the battle field: the walkers were more visible now, their gray bodies and red lasers clear against the white backdrop. They were still firing, and he could see smaller red blasts being exchanged down at the trenches below them.

_"Hopeless," _he thought. He clambered out of the hole he had made for himself just as other soldiers began to emerge from their otherwise graves. He took off towards the mouth of the base, snow being thrown into the air all around him. He felt a tiny boost of confidence as a squadron of speeders flew out of the base and shot off towards their enemies, but he knew it wasn't going to be enough.

**Several minutes later...**

The computers were done, and it was a good thing, too: the shield generator had been destroyed, and the air bombardment had begun. Everything around the base was being shaken up, and knocked about. The command center looked like a poorly put together garage sale, with the remains of computers and technology scattered about everywhere.

Almost all the transports were away. The troops had been called back in, all the pilots had gotten to their fighters. All that was left was the Shera, and one last ship for the soldiers and Princess Leia.

Princess Leia, Jacob, Terra, and C-3PO were still in the command room. They were working franticly, trying to squeeze the last bit of energy out of the computers. They were interrupted not only by a massive explosion, but also by Han Solo's abrupt entrence.

"They sent me to get you on your transport." he yelled. "They're inside the base, you morons! We've got to go!"

Leia shot him a glance of slight curiosity, perhaps wondering why he hadn't left yet, then turned back to the computer, saying, "Hold on Han, we've got to-"

But Jacob cut her off. "He's right, we've got to get out of here." He looked to Terra. "Seal up that entrance!"

"Right," she said, looking towards one of the two doors. "Blizzaga!"

Ice crystals flew from her hands, and formed in front of the door, sealing the room off.

"That'll slow them down," Jacob said, grabbing Terra's hand. "We've got to go, Leia!"

"Right, right," she muttered, standing up, though she was still typing. Han grabbed her shoulder and yanked her away, leading her out the door behind Jacob and Terra, with C-3PO bringing up the rear.

"Sir! Do wait for me! I'm not built for speed, you know!"

They ran through the crumbling halls, with Jacob and Terra keeping a good ten feet ahead of the other two humans. However, the distance was increased a bit when the ceiling caved in, Han suddenly whirling around and pushing Leia back, barely keeping her from the heavy rocks and ice.

Jacob turned and ran back to the barrier. A tiny crack gave him enough room to talk to those on the other side.

"We can't clear all of this away!"

"I know, kid, I know!" Han replied. "I'll just take Leia to the Falcon." He reached for his comlink. "I'll tell her ship to take off. You get moving!"

"Right! See you soon!"

"Keep away for a while, though!" Leia's voice came as he jumped down, grabbed Terra's hand again, and took off down the hall.

**The Shera...**

The ramp lowered as Jacob and Terra moved as fast as they could through the snow. Sora was waiting for them, and it was apparent that Cid was already at the controls. The engines were revving, and the propellers atop the ship were twirling. There were still imprints in the snow where the other transports had been sitting.

"Are we everyone?" Jacob called.

"Barely," Sora replied. "Zidane just beat you."

"There won't be any Ion support, so Cid better have a few tricks up his sleeve!" Jacob yelled as they boarded, the ramp closing and the ship lifting off before they were even properly aboard.

"He's already getting the warp drive ready," Sora replied. "May not travel as fast as light speed, but it doesn't take half as much time to warm up."

They were moving faster than Cid had flow for a long time. They could feel it, even though there weren't any windows. They jerked several times as they passed through the atmosphere, and they suddenly felt a longer, harder series of jerks as laser blasts went off all around them. They waited for a few moments before the ship gave the mightiest jerk yet, and then there was nothing else.

**Elsewhere...**

Tex shook her head slightly, and clutched the armor over her Heart. The soldier next to her, who's call sign was 'Scarecrow', looked at her. "You okay?" his voice projected through his helmet.

"... Shit..." she jerked slightly, then stood up. "I... I'm okay. But someone else isn't..." she staggered off in the direction of their ship's cockpit, where Sienex was on call with Vader. She walked in unannounced, and didn't wait for them to stop talking before she butted in.

"Isamahii has left Kairi," she said. Sienex turned, clearly glaring at her under his helment, though Vader was interested.

"Indeed?" he asked. "So the connection is still working?"

"I think so. But it's not getting us any closer to finding the new Princess."

** Whoops, I didn't think of this disclaimer last time! The Winnie-the-Pooh characters aren't mine, nor is the Hundred Acer Wood. Boy, how much I would pay for a book that could send me there... You think I'm joking, don't you? I can watch Red Vs. Blue and Winnie-the-Pooh too, you know!**

** Oh, and one of the men Cobb was working with was Arthur. Duh. Did I forget anything else? Lea from the flashback. The walkers, I guess... Remind me if I missed anything.**

** Well, there's chapter two. Longer, like the ones from the end of last book. Chapter length will be a lot more varied this time around.**


	3. Where Do We Go From Here?

**Chapter 3! In spanish, that's captulo tres!**

** First of all, muchos apoligios for not getting this up faster. This and the next chapter are really slow anyway, so even if I didn't have a million other things that took precedence over fanfiction, it was still a pain to write these. I added in some action scenes in this one that I think will break up the pacing nicely, but you'll have to review and tell me how well that went.**

** With that said, on with the show!... Finally!**

** Chapter 3: Where Do We Go From Here?**

** The Shera**

** Warp Drive**

** Ship/Hoth Time: 5:04 PM**

** Radiant Garden Time: 2:30 AM**

** Several hours after departing from Hoth**

Sora was glad to be out of his uniform and back into his Drive clothes... or so he thought. Apparently he had done a good bit of growing over the past six months. That, or his clothes had done a good bit of shrinking.

Well, it wasn't that big a deal. He could get some normal clothes on Radiant Garden, and then, perhaps, they could stop by Twilight Town before they regrouped with the Rebellion and have the Three Good Ferries grow his garments out. Besides, even though they were useful in combat and granted him a good deal of extra strength, without Donald and Goofy constantly at his side, he couldn't perform any of his Drives. Maybe Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather could amend that as well.

So he decided to wear the lightest articles from his uniform that he could, and came out in a white t-shirt and sweats. He decided to wear the light-weight beige vest as well.

Now, on to more important matters. He needed to go chew Jacob out over all this Kairi business. Now seemed like a good time to do it. Out the door, through the empty halls, and to Jacob's room he went, and when Sora entered, he was meet with this:

"No Ben, I... what?... Something is bothering you. Just tell me... come on, man... Yeah, I know: your seminar. It was about your ancest-... Who was that?"

Jacob was taking into a cell phone, which was hooked up to a large box, apparently constructed so that he could communicate across worlds, or in the middle of space. Jacob turned, saw Sora, and held up a finger indicating that he wanted him to wait. "Look Ben, I know you must be angry... Okay, pissed. And I agree, this has got to be bogus... Look, I can come there in a few days if you want... No, I want to, really... Kairi's with me. And a couple other people I'd like you to meet... No, _she's_ not with us. No."

He looked at Sora and unnecessarily lifted his finger again. "Right, I... No Ben, I really want to do this. No, I'm going to land at the car. CIA and FBI will only be more attentive at this point... Yes. No. Right, I'll call you back soon. Goodbye."

With that, he hung up the phone and placed it on his desk. He had no sooner lowered it from his ear, however, than Sora has burst out, "Who was that?"

"A friend."

Sora resisted the urge to say 'You have friends?', and instead asked, "What was his name?"

"Uh, Ben. I think I said his name several times."

"What's his _full_ name?"

"You never asked me for _my_ full name."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "You have one?" 

"No. Do you have a last name, Sora?"

"Yeah, it's-"

"I don't care. I won't ever use it and I'll forget it right after you say it. Now, what did you come here for?" 

Sora bit his lip. "To talk about Kairi."

"Ah, yes, our friend Kairi. What do you want to talk about specifically?"

"What the hell is happening to her?"

Jacob smiled as he pulled his chair away from his desk and sat down in it, facing towards him. "The million dollar question, Sora." He gestured to his bed. "Sit down, why don't you?"

Sora sat as requested, and repeated, "What's happening to Kairi?"

"Darkness has penetrated her Heart. She is fighting back against it as everyone constantly does, though since the conflict is new to her Heart, it will be considerably weak for some time."

"Do we know how the Darkness got into her?" Sora asked.

Jacob almost replied with an explanation of Kairi's guilty affection for the Keybearer, but the love essence was almost ready, and making Sora feel guilty wouldn't help things. "I don't know," he answered simply.

Sora scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. "So what do we do now? You didn't tell her, did you?"

"No Sora, I didn't. And you won't either."

"Care to share why not?"

"Because I don't know what would happen if she knew what's going on inside her. I don't have any way of foreseeing her reaction, and it might not be pretty."

Sora didn't seem to like that answer, so Jacob added, "Look, as long as we help her through this and she copes, eventually she'll be used to all the new, weird stuff she's feeling, and she will start acting much more like herself again."

Sora glanced at the door, as though contemplating whether to leave or not. He decided to stay, apparently, as he turned back and said, "Jacob, how do you know so much about... everything?"

Jacob gave what might have been a laugh. "I dare say I know a lot about a lot, but I don't know very much at all about everything."

"But how do you know so much about Hearts and stuff?"

Jacob looked away from him, though not at anything specific. "Let's just leave it at Ansem, Mickey and I were on speaking terms. The details are for another day."

Sora suddenly realized that he had turned into Kairi for a few moments, and remembered he didn't give a flying flip what Jacob's secret double life was. "Uh, right. I guess I'll see you later."

He stood, but Jacob did as well. "Where are you going?"

"Uh... I guess back to my room. Sleep. Haven't for two days. It was too dangerous to sleep when me and Han were out with Luke."

"Right." Jacob glanced at his phone, then looked back to Sora. "I'm going to go check in on Cid. After you," he said, extending a hand towards the door. Sora exited, followed by Jacob.

**Elsewhere in the galaxy...**

The imperial shuttle landed on the large platform. The platform jutted out from a massive temple of sorts. The temple was sitting atop a sea of metal, with highways of air vehicles shooting by. Skyscrapers of unprecedented size could be seen in every direction after several kilometers of empty space.

Sienex was the first to depart from the ship, being greeted by several other Stormtroopers.

"We'll need to see your clearance, sir," the leader said.

Sienex held up his palm, and a hologram projected from the small device he was clutching.

"I see. We've been expecting you."

"No, you haven't," Sienex said, lowering his hand.

"Of course not, sir."

"In fact, we aren't even here."

"What _are_ you talking about, sir?"

Sienex nodded, turned, and motioned for the other seven of his group at the bottom of the shuttle's loading bay to follow. Tex was bringing up the rear, with a massive rocket launcher strapped to her back, and twin hand-held machine guns attached to her legs magnetically.

The troopers who had greeted them turned and walked off, resuming their business as if nothing was happening. As the group walked past, their leader said, "Oh, and one thing: You should know that my men have been reporting ghost sightings in there. Of jedi and the clones who died in the attack."

"You believe them?" Scarecrow asked, elbowing Ice with a chuckle.

"I didn't. Until one of them came back without an arm."

Everyone looked at Sienex, other than Tex, who just took a few steps closer to the structure, gazing up at it's doors.

"If ghosts can hurt us," Sienex said, "We can hurt them." He gestured for his group to follow, and they marched up the massive steps to the broken door of the Jedi Temple.

**Unknown location...**

He was face down in the grass. Sora slowly pushed himself up and glanced around. He was in a massive field, covered with wild flowers of every variety, with snowcapped mountains in the far off distance.

He had been here before. When he had fought Noir on Edge. What had he said?

"This is a place deeply connected with your Heart."

Someone had said those words, just now. But it wasn't Noir's voice, even though the words were the same. It was a female voice, and it seemed to come from everywhere.

Sora spun around looking for a source, but found none. The voice came back after a few moments. "I know you must be confused. I was too, when I first found this place. But not much makes sense here to begin with."

"... Where are we?" Sora asked slowly, still looking about him, expecting someone to pop into existence as Noir had done.

"Somewhere Light in the Darkness. This is my world."

He looked looked into the sky. It felt appropriate for addressing an omnipresent voice. "Who are you?"

"Me? I... I'm what's left. What's left of a story, or a legacy. The only one that remembers."

Sora didn't like vague answers. "What's your name?"

"My... name? I have lost it. Along with so much of myself. I am nothing but oblivion." There was a pause. "Oblivion. Yes. My name is Oblivion. That is fitting."

"... Alright... Oblivion. But why am I here?"

"Because, Sora, you need help. My help."

Sora bit his lip. "What kind of help?"

"Whatever I have. I can no longer put myself to use. However, I know that I can help you."

"Answer my freaking question!" Sora suddenly yelled. "And stop talking in circles!"

A long pause. "Noir challenged you to open Kingdom Hearts. You failed. This indicates that you have yet to become a Master. A Keyblade Master."

Again, silence. Eventually, Sora inquired, "So... you're a Keyblade Master?"

"Officially. But before your time, the title of Master was given to certain students of the Keyblade, and many did not truly deserve the title. I don't think that I did; I wanted to become a Master because that was what I had always wanted. But I never learned the secrets that greater Keybearers welded. However, I believe that the skills I control, once passed to you, may open the door to true Masterhood for you."

"Are you dead?"

"Dead? In a sense. I doubt that I will ever live the way I did, or even half the way I did, so yes, I suppose, I am dead."

"Why can't you just talk straight?" Sora demanded.

"You will see me again soon, Sora. We will begin training then."

"Wait, training? And when's soon? How are you-"

Then Sora woke up, his body soaked with sweat, and Oblivion's words echoing in his mind.

**Later, 8:10 PM Hoth/Ship time, 5:36 AM Radiant Garden time...**

There was that kind of light that you get when it's not quite day, but not quite night. Not the light you get before dawn, it was a bit more hollow than that. Everything looked oddly pale, even though the sky was dark and the air was dark. They could hear people and vehicles moving about in the city, probably off to construction sites. A small Rebellion platoon was stationed at the large, open space near the edge of the city wall where they had landed. The hanger in the Citadel was full of Rebellion ships, and the plaza outside of the base they had used during the resistance effort often had too much traffic of soldiers and workers going in and out to land a ship there. To the rear of the platoon was a T2-B hover tank, its guns pointed to the sky.

"Sir!" the platoon leader said to the approaching Cid and Jacob. Everyone else had yet to disembark. "We have a secure transmission for you from the Rebel Fleet!"

"Already?" Cid asked, a cigar in his teeth and a wad of tobacco on his tongue. "I thought this regroup was supposed to take a while?"

"It is, sir," the man replied. "But several of our ships from other locations in the galaxy have already regrouped. We've been hailed by Home One."

Jacob glanced at Cid for help, and he answered the unspoken inquiry. "Our capital ship."

"It's not the Shera?" Jacob asked jokingly.

"I'm to take you to command so you can receive it," continued the soldier. "Time is short; they can't maintain contact for long."

"How did they know that we were here, though?" Jacob asked.

"They probably estimated our transit time, kid," Cid answered. "Now come on, let's go hear this message."

Jacob glanced back at the ship to see Sora and Zidane leading the dismount, followed shortly by Kairi, and then Terra and Stitch. "We'll come. These guys are good without us." He looked back at the leader. "Just watch the ship."

The man nodded and turned, leading them towards the tank. Sora ran up behind them. "Where are you guys going?"

"We've got something to do at command," Jacob replied shortly. "You guys are free for a while. We'll round you up when we know what our next step is."

Jacob kept walking, and Sora called after him without following. "Should I... be there?"

Jacob stopped and looked back. "Do you want to be?"

"... Not really."

"Then don't come." Jacob turned back to the tank, and climbed atop it next to Cid and a few other armed soldiers, and they hovered off into the streets.

Kairi was at Sora's shoulder as the platoon when back about its business. "What's the plan?"

"We're free for now," Sora answered. "They've got to go do something in the mean time."

"We should probably make sure Zidane stays close, so he doesn't go on a crime spree."

"Good idea." Sora turned. "Zida-"

But Zidane and Stitch were already gone, leaving only a blank Terra staring at them.

Kairi sighed, annoyed. "So, what now?" she asked, turning to Sora.

"Anyone you want to visit?"

"I can just stay here," Terra said, inching back towards the ship a bit. "I don't want to intrude."

Kairi thought that was a rather good idea, since it would mean more alone time with Sora, but the boy seemed to disagree. Perhaps because he _didn't _want alone time with Kairi. "That sounds really boring, Terra," Sora said. "You sure you don't want to come along?"

"No, really, I don't know anyone," she replied. "I don't mind being alone."

"Yeah, Sora," Kairi said, though she felt like a jerk as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

Sora threw Kairi a dirty glance before he said, "Come on, let's go see Rinoa. Squall may not be there this time of the morning."

So Terra walked along behind Sora and Kairi, her face looking just as bewildered as ever, and her silk scarf billowing about every time a vehicle went by. The transit across town took about thirty minutes, so they were knocking on Rinoa's door just a bit after six o'clock. Rinoa answered the door in her pajamas, her hair tangled.

"Did you forget something Sq-?" There was a pause while her mind registered the presence of the teens before she let out a short little squeal. "Oh my gosh! Why didn't you guys tell me you were coming back! Come on in, come on in..."

**Command...**

Admiral Ackbar, an odd alien who looked a bit like a squid with a torso, arms, and legs, appeared in a hologram before Jacob, Cid, and Dr. Cid, all of whom were standing in a small communications room.

_"Most of our forces have reassembled with the main fleet,"_ Ackbar reported. _"However, Captain Solo's ship has yet to make any contact with us. As you were among the last to leave the Hoth system, we were wondering if you could give us any information on his whereabouts."_

Both Cids glanced at Jacob, who said, "Captain Solo was escorting Princess Leia to his craft when I last made contact with him. They could have been intercepted before leaving the base, or their ship could have been destroyed while attempting to make the jump to hyperspace."

_"Hrm. This is troubling."_ There was a pause before the Admiral continued. _"Secondly, have you decided as to whether or not you are going to regroup with us yet?"_

Jacob glanced at Cid, to which Cid replied, "Why do I even come to these things?"

"I've got to make a stop first," Jacob answered Ackbar. "If anything comes up, we'll let you know right away."

_"Understood. Lastly, Dr. Cid."_

"Yes, Admiral?" the man asked, pushing his glasses into place.

_"I need you to talk with the commander of Rebellion forces on Radiant Garden. Two men among your ranks, as well as a prisoner, are of extreme importance to us."_

"What men, sir?" Dr. Cid questioned.

_"Two soldiers who go by the call-signs of Slammer and Blaze,"_ Ackbar replied. _"And a prisoner from the Death Star attack. His name is Fox. They were all part of a special forces unit during another war twenty years ago, and we believe they may have some information we need."_

"Understood," the doctor replied. "I'll have them sent to you at once."

**Rinoa and Squall's house...**

Rinoa and Squall had gotten married during the others' absence on Hoth, and even though Rinoa managed to occupy the conversation with that for a few minutes, her much bigger news burst out eventually.

"I'm pregnant."

Sora spit out his drink. Kairi nearly fell out of her chair. Terra looked away from the floor for the first time since she had walked in.

"What?" Kairi demanded. "You're going to have a kid?"

"Just found out a month ago," she said enthusiastically. The words came as though she couldn't get them out fast enough. "You wouldn't have recognized Squall after I told him."

"C-c-congratulations!" Sora sputtered, wiping his mouth.

"So does this mean Kairi is going to be an aunt?" Terra asked, looking at the red-head.

Kairi's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh... I am! That is _so_ weird..."

Suddenly, the door was thrown open, and Zidane and Stitch were looking at them, the former with knives drawn and the latter with fists up.

"Alright, everyone put-!"

A pause.

"Shit. You got to be kidding me."

"Next house," Stitch said.

They closed the door behind them as they walked out.

"I'm going to go make sure they don't murder anyone," Sora said, standing up. "Be back in a minute."

He walked out after the other two, and Kairi quickly picked the conversation up. "So do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

Rinoa opened her mouth, but Terra said, "No Kairi, you have to be at least three months pregnant before the gender can be determined," and then her hand shot to her mouth. _"How do I...?"_

Rinoa's eyes went from Terra to Kairi. "I... thought she didn't remember anything."

Kairi didn't respond to her sister. "... Terra? You okay?"

The blond only stood and ran for the door, throwing it open before the others could get up. By the time Kairi and Rinoa were in the street, Terra had vanished.

**The Castle That Never Was...**

Maleficent smirked as Cobb sat down opposite from her at the long, black table. Black and green mist milled about them lazily, obscuring the rest of the room.

"I want my payment," Cobb said after several minutes of staring.

"Naturally," the witch replied.

More silence.

"Well?" Cobb asked.

"I'm not feeling particularly generous right now," Maleficent said. "Pete!"

Two massive hands came out of nowhere behind Cobb. He had been expecting as much. He jumped out of his chair just as the hands would have grabbed him, slid on the table, and drew his gun from his overcoat. In a split second, he had it set directly on Maleficent's head.

The witch's hand was a blur as it shot upwards and caught the bullet between two of her fingers.

Cobb fired two more bullets; the second was caught by the witch with her other hand, and the third was nocked completely off course when Pete jumped on top of him. The two wrestled for a brief moment before the obviously stronger Pete nocked the Extractor's gun out of his hand. He turned Cobb over, smashed his face into the table, and wrenched the man's hands behind his back. Even with his chubby fingers, he managed to put what appeared to be handcuffs made of Darkness around Cobb's wrists.

"Take him away!" Maleficent ordered. Pete nodded as he hoisted Cobb to his feet, leading him away.

"Oh, and Mr. Cobb."

Pete stopped, and the man turned to look at her, blood running from his nose down his face.

"I don't think you'll be seeing your family for quite some time."

Cobb gave a short 'huff' before Pete turned him around and they continued out into the mist.

**Radiant Garden...**

Emily woke to a quiet house, as she always did. She got up, went to her bathroom, and discovered that something was off: the water wasn't running.

She sighed, blew a bit of her ginger hair out of her eyes, and walked into the hall, down towards the door that lead to the boiler room. She entered, went to the water valve, but found that it should have been running. She twisted it off, then opened it again, and went back to the bathroom. Still no water.

She went to the kitchen, wondering just what was going on, and noticed that the electricity wasn't working either when she tried to flip the light switch. Frustrated, she went to the front door (the only door out of her house), intending to go around to the breaker box. She pulled a coat over the robe she slept in, just in case, slipped shoes over her bare feet, and stepped out into the street.

She was meet with one of the worst things she could have been met with.

A large, mean looking woman was waiting for her, staring Emily down from where she stood next to a pick-up truck. Glare from the rising sun flashed off the woman's glasses, shielding her eyes from view.

"You cut the water?" Emily demanded. "And the electricity?"

"You're coming with me this time."

"No!" she shouted, turning back for her door. She threw it open as fast as she could, but she wasn't quick enough. The woman had already grabbed Emily by the shoulders and dragged her away. "Let go of me!" Emily shouted.

"This is under the authority of the city and the Rebel Alliance officials," the woman said. "Unless, of course, you miraculously found your father's will over night."

Emily was doing her best to yank out of the woman's grip, but she had no success.

"We've let you live here for months. The city can't afford to pay for your benefits."

"I told you, I'm looking for a job, but no one will hire me!" Emily yelled. "Because of you and your stupid phycologists, everyone things I'm suffering from post traumatic stress!"

"No matter; you're coming to the orphanage, and all the property in that building is going to be donated to charity."

"Or taken by city officials! You think I'm a dumb-ass kid, but I'm not!"

"Oh, you and your little conspiracy theories."

"Shove it up-!" Emily started, but suddenly the front window of the woman's car shattered. The two ducked, with Emily managing to break free and run for her house.

"No you don't!" the woman yelled, though when Emily glanced back, she was quite surprised to see Zidane jumping down from a roof and landing directly on top of the woman, forcing her to the ground. The knife he hadn't thrown through the window was driven through the woman's sleeve, pinning her to the ground.

"You guys really suck at your job," the thief said. "You were trying to get her out of here when I left freaking town. That was, like, six months ago."

Emily ran through the threshold of her door, turned, closed it most of the way so that she could still look out and see Zidane and the woman.

The woman spat on Zidane's face as he started to get up. "Petty thief!"

"Thief?" Zidane said, sounding insulted. "Thief?... Yeah, I suppose I am. It's the petty part I take insult with." He turned, punched the side window of her car in, picked up his knife, and looked back at her. "Ahem," he coughed. He wiped the saliva off his face before he hurled the knife directly at her.

Emily looked away, but didn't hear the scream she had expected. She looked up to see that the knife had gone into the ground but a centimeter above the woman's head.

Cue Stitch. The alien jumped down from the rooftops with a laugh, said something in alien that must have been rather rude, then grabbed both of the knives and threw them back to Zidane, who caught them expertly.

"Bugger off," Zidane ordered. The woman obeyed, getting into her vehicle, brushing the glass out of her seat, and driving away.

Emily opened the door and approached Zidane somewhat timidly. "Uh... thanks."

"They been hounding you since we left?" he asked.

"Pretty much," she said, glancing down the street. "They just cut the water and power; I've been living off good will so far. Most everyone on the city board wants to get me out."

"Most?" Stitch asked, bouncing on one foot next to Zidane.

"Merlin the wizard," she replied. "He's been offering to magically store all of the stuff in here somehow, but... Well, everyone else is trying to pin it as city property."

"Yeah, I knew about that bit," he said.

"Hey!"

The three of them looked down the street a bit to see Sora approaching. It was at this moment that Emily became aware that she wasn't dressed properly, and as she ran her hands through her hair quickly, she also noticed that more than a few of her neighbors had poked their heads out their windows to watch the fiasco.

"You guys come inside," Emily said, gesturing to her house. She also waved down at Sora, then gestured towards the house as to indicate where they would be. Emily, Zidane, and Stitch were just stepping inside good when Sora ran up.

"Hey Emily, how's it going?" he asked as he let himself in.

"F-fine," she lied with a little difficulty.

Sora looked at Zidane. "You didn't kill anyone, right?"

Zidane rolled his eyes, but still failed to answer the question.

Emily, clearly flustered, stammered out, "Uh, c-could you guys excuse me... for a sec? I gotta... gotta change..."

Before Sora could get out a, "Sure," she had already turned and run off down the hall.

The Keybearer suddenly noticed how cold it was. "She leaving windows open or something?" he asked, glancing towards Zidane. The thief filled Sora in on the situation as best he could.

"Crap," Sora muttered as he called a burning orb of fire into existence. "That really is too bad..." He thrust his hand forward, and the ball drifted a bit away, then halted in mid air.

"Neat trick," Zidane commented, leaning against the wall, his tail whipping around a bit. "You figure that out yourself?"

"I took a lot of time experimenting with Fire spells on Hoth," he answered. He fired off several more, putting a few down the hallway and at least one in every adjourning room.

This turned out to be a mistake, as a fireball floating into one's room when they least expect it can cause quite a fright. Emily jumped out into the hall after a brief little scream.

Actually, as far as Zidane was concerned, it hadn't been a mistake at all, since she had been taking off her robe so that she could change... yeah.

Standing before a rather embarrassed Sora and smirking Zidane was a startled and humiliated red-head, wearing white panties and a bra of the same color. She looked a bit cold, though the her pale face quickly flushed with color.

There was a moment of silence, that Sora and Emily spent taking in the situation, but Zidane used to think of something witty. He eventually settled on, "Hey, did it just get hotter in here?"

**The Jedi Temple...**

"If it bleeds, you can kill it."

"Well, Ice," Scarecrow said. "Just because it's possible doesn't mean that we specifically have the firepower and/or skill can kill _it_."

"Shut up, you two," Sienex ordered, looking over his shoulder at them. They were standing on a long bridge within the temple, with the bodies of 'jedi' laying before them. Several of his men were examining the bodies.

"They're carrying hologram projectors," one reported. "Seems they didn't do the job all on their own."

"They've got some crude melee weapons," said another. "Not nearly enough to sever an armored soldier's arm, though."

"Some of them could have lightsabers," Tex said. "They're not that hard to pick up on the black market. I mean, you give me ten minutes and enough bullets, and I could be back with twenty."

"I love this town," Ice chuckled.

"Shove it up your ass," Tex berated.

"Can I shove it up _yours_? Bow-chicka-bow-wow."

Under her visor, Tex rolled her eyes. She approached Sienex and muttered, "How in hell did those two get in here?"

He laughed. "They may seem dumb, but trust me: they know their way around a firefight. I trust them with my life."

"Hrmp," was all she had to say to that. "I'm going to scout ahead," she told him, not waiting for permission before walking off down the bridge. "I'll keep in radio contact..."

Sienex glanced at one of the troops who was idling. "Anderson!"

"Sir!" he replied, snapping to attention instead of admiring the archatecture as he had been moments ago.

"Stick with her," he ordered, pointing after Tex.

"He'll only slow me down!" the Freelancer called over her shoulder.

"Understood, sir," the soldier said, jogging to catch up with her.

When he did, the first thing out of the Freelancer's mouth was, "What have you got on you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your equipment. Weapons."

"Uh, an EMP charge, a thermal detinator," he glanced back down at his belt for a moment. "... Grappling hook... standard equipment, ma'am."

Tex glanced at him briefly. There was a pump-action shotgun strapped to his back, and a semi-automatic laser pistol in his hand. "You strong enough to carry this thing?" she asked, jabbing a thumb at her rocket launcher.

"I-I suppose."

"Don't suppose. Know so."

"Uh... I know so?"

"Good. You might come in handy after all..."

**The Great Maw...**

Jacob stood on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the massive chasm of purple rock in Radiant Garden's surface. In the distance, there was the dark castle which still had yet to be dealt with. Since the constant attacks on Radiant Garden by the Heartless had slowed and there didn't appear to be any intelligent life residing within it's tall, red and black towers, no one had bothered with it.

A gust of wind came by, blowing his hair out of his face. He shook his head and then looked in the opposite direction of the flow to see, much to his surprise, a huge wave of fire down below in the canyon. There didn't appear to be any Heartless in that direct area, and the ones that Jacob could see appeared to be running away from the source of the blaze. Understandable... that was, it would had been, if they hadn't been mindless beasts that attacked anything.

Jacob jogged along the side of the chasm for a moment before he came to a spot that seemed to slope instead of going straight down like everywhere else. He lowered himself over it, glanced down it to see if there were any weak spots or bumps, and then he got on and slid down towards the ground. Just as he got underway, a loud, screeching cry echoed through the canyon. It sounded like an animal's cry, though Jacob had never heard an animal like that before.

By the time his ride ended, the source of the fire had ceased to release fire, and was instead releasing crystals of ice and hurling chunks of stone. Most seemed to be launched aimlessly, with a few finding Heartless targets by way of dumb luck. Jacob did his best not to meet an early fate as he approached the figure, dodging around a good number of boulders and razor sharp icicles on the way.

He could hear incantations now. Between each spell he could hear other cries that were clearly not of a magical sort, but indeed very angry and frustrated. Eventually he began to make out such cries as, "Tell me who I am!" and "I know you can hear me!"

Jacob stooped down and picked up a rock about the size of a fist. He turned it over in his hand a few times, then hurled it directly towards the source of the magics. There was a very brief flash, and the stone fell to the ground, cleaved in two.

"Terra!"

The girl froze and stared at him. There was a wild, alien look in her eyes, and many of the veins in her body seemed to have swelled to become visible, and they were all a shade of purple. Her fingers also looked longer, and her back more arched. She and Jacob gazed at each other for a few moments before Terra, if it was in fact Terra, released a terrible scream like that of a wounded animal and conjured a massive ball of flame into existence, which she hurled down the canyon towards a crowd of Heartless that had gathered to watch, as though wondering if she was no longer hostile. They were obliterated instantly.

Just as Jacob looked away from the carnage, he saw, almost instantly, the oddly colored blood veins vanish from Terra's complexion, her back straighten, and her fingers shrink in length. Then, her eyes rolled into her head, and she collapsed onto the rock.

Jacob rushed to her side, and, getting down on his knees, he rested her head on his lap as he tried to revive her. However, he stopped rather quickly when he noticed that she was trembling, and words were escaping her lips. "... N... No... Don't put it back in, I don't... don't want... want it... I... killed..."

Then a much stronger shudder quaked through her body, and her eyes squeezed tighter, she pressed one ear hard against Jacob's leg, and then lifted a hand up to cover the other. A terrified, pained scream escaped her."... Get... out of my head!..."

**The Jedi Temple...**

Tex and Anderson walked slowly through a large open hallway with windows looking on the bright city outside. Without the light flooding through those, it would have been very dark and dreary, as none of the lights were illuminated and it seemed that a plethora of spiders had decided to call the area their home.

They trudged on through the webs, and they were quite certain that someone other than the spiders was watching them. Anderson had his shotgun at the ready, and Tex was scanning the area for heat signatures while pointing her sub-machine guns in any direction that seemed especially dark and suspicious.

They made it through that with little hassle. Tex radioed back, "Sienex, mark our position. Haven't picked up any hostile targets but it's ripe for an ambush. Over."

He came back with a short,_ "Understood. We've finished with the bodies and are coming in your direction. Out."_

**On Radiant Garden...**

"I seriously can't believe you would say something like that."

"What? I know it wasn't my best, but I thought it was pretty funny!"

"You know that isn't what I'm talking about!"

Zidane and Sora were in Emily's kitchen, with the former sitting with his feet up on the table and the chair he was sitting in tilting back slightly. His tail was pushing off the ground, insuring that he didn't fall, and his hands were behind his head. "Come on, man, it was just a joke!"

"She's embarrassed enough that she's going through this whole ordeal," Sora shot angrily. He was pacing up and down the room, his expression mixed not quite furious, but certainly on its way. He might have been tempted to kick Stitch, had Stitch not decided to avoid the fireworks and rampage about town for a bit instead.

"If I recall correctly," Zidane replied, "_I'm_ the one who saved her from the mean lady, and _you're_ the one who shot the fireball into her room."

Sora seemed to need a moment to let that sink in, because he stopped pacing and stared blankly in the direction he happened to be facing at the moment Zidane stopped speaking. After a few seconds, Sora twisted towards the thief, a rather nasty look on his face, and said, "That's not the point!"

"Spoken like a champion!" Zidane laughed.

"You're a sarcastic, narcissistic asshole!"

There was a pause.

"Wow, those were long words for you. How long have you been working on that one?"

"A while. I was planning on using it on Jacob. What do you think?"

"You could add something about how his motives and interests are always vague. I seem to recall you telling me that a while ago."

Sora put a hand on his chin. "Yeah... that could be good... thanks."

"Any time, pal."

It was shortly after this that Emily entered the room. She was dressed for a change, though she was still just as red as if she had walked in wearing her underwear again.

"Sorry about that, you two," she murmured.

"No need to apologize," they replied in unison, though obviously for different reasons.

"Is there anything we can do to help with your... uh, situation?" Sora asked.

"Not really," she answered. "The only real issue is that... well, I doubt that I'll be able to keep the house, but Merlin the wizard said that he's trying to figure out a way that he can store all my dad and my's stuff..." she glanced around. "The city board is trying to seize it."

"... I never asked before we left," Sora said, plucking up some courage. "I don't want to... well, you know... if you don't want to, that is, answer... What happened to your mom?"

A pause. Emily shuffled her feet, crossed her arms, and looked down at her feet. "She died when I was four. Or at least we think she died. Me and dad came out in another world together after Radiant Garden was taken by the Heartless... she was standing right next to us, but even though we looked for her, we never found her..."

Then came one of those awkward silences. Zidane proved that he was actually a good person by saying, "... I'm... really sorry. I've lost people I care about, too."

Emily gave a shallow laugh. "Haven't we all...?"

Sora bit his lip. Images of Riku had started floating through his head again... Sora had almost hit a record for longest amount of time without thinking about him...

"You know," Zidane started, changing the subject. "The town's main computer system has a sort of digitizing-ray that can send things into the computer world. You may be able to store your stuff there." 

"Merlin thought of that a while ago," she replied. "But some of the tech guys said that the stuff might get damaged by viruses and Heartless." Emily sighed. "Merlin just can't seem to make a world quite big enough and safe enough for everything. He's got some sort of magic bag, but it's got his personal stuff in it, and I'm almost afraid that he'll accidentally spill a potion or something on it and make it all blow up."

Sora laughed a little, and that seemed to do a world of good for Emily, who smiled and gave a bit of a chuckle in turn.

Then, a wonderful thought struck Sora. "Oh!" he suddenly gasped. "Of course! Why hadn't Merlin already thought of it?"

With that awfully vague outburst, he stood and headed for the door.

"Sora?" Zidane and Emily said, though it was Zidane who followed up with, "What did you think of?"

Sora looked back at him as he passed into the hallway, smiled, and said, "The book!" before vanishing around the corner.

Zidane jumped up just as Emily asked, "What book?" Zidane replied with, "Oh, don't you worry, I'll explain on the way. You see, there's this magic book that Sora has that you can travel into, and while you're there you can't say any naughty words like ass and crap..."

**Elsewhere...**

Tex and Anderson had entered another large, open area. They were standing on a railed platform that connected to a long bridge that stretched across the chamber, breaking off at certain places to allow access to different parts of the Temple. The bridges themselves were lined with tall, impressive columns and statues of ancient Jedi. Most of them were damaged in some way or another, most likely during the large-scale attack that had taken place years ago. Looking ahead, they were both put off to notice that the bridge leading to the Jedi Archives had been destroyed, leaving a large fifteen-or-so meter gap keeping them from their goal.

Anderson turned away from Tex and looked back into the temple as he switched on his radio. "Sienex, we've gotten to the main intersection leading to the archives, but the bridge is out."

_"Damn... probably those 'ghosts'. Might have taken it out ages ago... They must be Jedi loyalists... or Jedi themselves. Exercise caution. Hold your position, we'll be there shortly."_

"Understood, sir. Anderson out."

With that, he turned back to Tex, only to have his shotgun ripped out of his hands by the Freelancer.

"The hell-?"

But he didn't get to finish his sentence before she had tossed her rocket launcher at him. He caught it with both hands and stumbled backward under it's weight. Then she dropped two extra rockets at his feet.

"Cover the rear," she ordered. With that, she turned and started running down the bridge towards the others. As soon as she set foot on it, she grabbed a small, blue ball of some sort off her hip. Tex squeezed it, and it suddenly began to glow, and left a tail reminiscent of a comet behind it. She hurled it towards one of the columns, and it stuck right onto the smooth surface. The device detonated, and a fiery explosion of plasma flew in every direction. The column broke, and giant chunks of stone toppled over the edge of the bridge, or came crashing down on the bridge. Before the smoke had even cleared, Tex had pointed her newly acquired firearm at the spot where she had broken the column and fired. A human scream and the explosion of blood that came flying through the dust indicated that Tex had found her mark.

Before the body even fell of the bridge, more of the 'ghosts' were emerging from their hiding places and firing towards Tex. Lasers flew towards her as she ducked down behind the remains of the column she had broken. The blasts impacted on her cover, tearing away bits of it but not doing nearly enough damage.

Anderson ducked and approached the railing near the bridge for better cover when he remembered Tex had instructed him to 'cover the rear'. For a moment he wondered if she had actually suspected a rear attack or if she was just being cautious before he got his answer. Three more of the enigmatic enemies suddenly emerged through the door they had just come through moments ago. Their eyes were momentarily drawn to the chaos on the bridge, giving Anderson time to aim his weapon. Then they noticed him, but they didn't even have the chance to run more than a few steps before Anderson had fired a rocket at the ground between them, sending the limp bodies of two flying and cremating the other.

Tex grabbed a regular frag grenade, drew the pin, and tossed it in the direction of her targets. As soon as she let it fly, she attached her shotgun to her back and grabbed her machine pistols off her legs. She waited to hear the sound of her explosive go off, and when she did, she popped back up and began spraying. Most of her opponents were behind cover, with only a few stunned enough to stumble out into her line of sight. She made quick work of them. Then she hurtled over her cover and ran for one of the columns that was still standing, advancing a few feet on the 'ghosts'. Just before she got there, a few of them managed to get off shots. They impacted on what appeared to be a shield around her armor, which appeared for just a moment, looking a bit like lightning jumping across her figure. Then she vanished behind her new barrier.

Anderson was too busy reloading to react when two more of the opponents climbed up on either side of the platform. The two nearest to him, who were both bipedal aliens of some kind, ignited what appeared to be lightsabers and hurled them at him. Dropping his rocket launcher, he ducked and rolled out of the way as the energized blades sailed through the railing he had been crouched next to a moment ago. He whipped his pistol out of it's holster and popped off a headshot on one of the two attackers. The assailant's body flipped backwards off of the platform just as Anderson heard two more sabers turning on behind him. He turned just in time to see that one of the other two, who were both human females, had also thrown their weapon. He jumped out of the way again, firing off a few rounds in the air for good measure, but only one of them made contact, hitting the target in his leg.

As the one woman staggered, the other charged towards the Stormtrooper. Anderson looked over his shoulder at the surviving alien to see that the two blades which had been thrown moments ago were flying back through the air like boomerangs. The caught both his own and that of his partner before charging at Anderson as well. Still looking in that direction, Anderson saw the saber which the other woman had just thrown was also returning to it's owner.

Tex reloaded her pistols before reattaching them to her legs. She snatched her shotgun off her back again and, arming another plasma grenade, she jumped out into the open. Laser fire flew around her as she charged forward fearlessly through their onslaught. She chucked her weapon towards one of the pillars that was bit ahead before she directed her attention to one which was directly to her left. She sung her shotgun up at the man who had been hiding behind it and offed him with one pull of the trigger. Just as she did this her explosive went off and another column fell, a cloud of dust kicking up between Tex and the majority of her opponents. Lasers continued to streak through the haze towards her, reflecting off her yellow visor in a spectacular display. An alien charged forward out of the gloom with a lightsaber activated. As he was about to swing down on her, she kicked forward and nocked the blade from his hand. His forward momentum carried him towards her, where she promptly sidestepped and hit him in the back of the head with her weapon. He fell to the ground, and she stepped on his back.

"Sloppy," she said. She pulled the pump, discarding a smoking shell from her gun. Then Tex hooked the pump under her victim's head and jerked upwards, breaking the alien's neck and cocking her weapon in one swift motion.

She looked back up towards the dust, which was clearing slightly, allowing her to see the originating points of the shots which were coming in her direction, now becoming more accurate. Tex glanced casually at the reading on her HUD to see that her shields were nowhere close to depleting. She smirked under her helmet as two brave souls came running out of the dust with their blades. She shot right through one of them before kicking the lightsaber of the fallen alien into the other's face, stunning him for the moment while she lifted her leg up, pointed it at him, and pulled the trigger on her machine gun.

As the two attackers were about to throw themselves on Anderson, he heard the one flying blade whiz through the air behind him. A horrid scream came from the woman he had wounded, who obviously hadn't been ready to catch it.

Just as the remaining alien and remaining woman jumped into the air, their blades drawn back, Anderson detached an EMP charge from his hip and rolled backwards. The other two landed, their blades coming down on the spot where Anderson was supposed to be just as the charge he had left for them went off. The blast instantly deactivated all three of the lightsabers in play, but it's range was just great enough to shut down almost all of Anderson's operating systems. Not that it would matter all that much, since he could still see.

The woman reacted first. With a rather angry sounding huff, she threw her inactive lightsaber hilt at him. He was about to let it just bounce off of him when he noticed that it had some sort of large, sharp hook attached to it. He ducked, and it sailed past him. The human turned and charged towards her fallen ally, clearly to obtain the still active lightsaber, as the alien hurled only one of his blades at Anderson. He ducked out of the way again, but the alien was more persistent. He came forward and swung his remaining hilt directly at Anderson, who dodged and spun around to return with a powerful roundhouse kick to the face. The alien fell, but rolled a bit away and jumped up again. He let out an angry scream and charged Anderson again... who promptly shot three lasers directly into his would-be-killer's chest, ending him. Anderson looked towards the other woman, who was just diving for the active saber. He fired again, but only got off two shots, both of which were misses, before he ran out of ammunition. He discarded the clip and reached for another one just as the lightsaber was retrieved. The attacker grabbed her comrade's weapon and turned back to Anderson, who was still in the process of reloading. Instead of throwing her weapon, however, she only flashed a cocky grin and slowly began to walk towards Anderson, her blade at the ready.

**Radiant Garden...**

It began to rain rather hard on the way to Merlin's house, but that didn't deter Sora, Emily, and Zidane. Well, it put Zidane off, but he didn't leave, so that was something.

The three were sopping wet when they showed up on Merlin's doorstep, but after a hasty, "My my! Come in, come in!", the wizard dried them off with a quick spell, and then evaporated the puddles they had tracked in.

The second thing Merlin said was, "Sora! So good to see you! I had heard that you had gotten back, but I was quite busy..."

Sora opened his mouth to reply when he noticed Zidane eyeballing some expensive looking crystal balls over on the table. Sora stepped on the boy's tail (Zidane screamed, cause, you know, it hurts when someone steps on your tail) before continuing, "What were you working on, Merlin?"

He glanced back at the table briefly before he looked back and said, "Oh, just some new spells I was experimenting with... I was trying my hand at divination, but I remain skeptical that it is even possible to look into the future."

Had Merlin not said anything about the future, neither Emily or Sora would have had any idea what he was talking about. But they both nodded as though they understood perfectly. "Sounds interesting..."

"Oh, rather fascinating, yes, just a tad bit far fetched, I'm afraid." The wizard smiled. "Oh, but forget that, you've come here for a reason! Take off those wet clothes -oh, that's right, I dried you off- and come have a seat!" He turned towards the table and drew his wand from out of his beard. He swiped it through the air, and the crystal balls had vanished in a poof of blue smoke. Then the stone area surrounding the table expanded slightly, allowing room for multiple people to sit around the table comfortably.

"Thank you very much, Merlin," Emily said. "We don't mean to impose, though-"

"Rubbish!" he shouted. "You're all welcome here. Except for you, Zidane. You look at me or my property the wrong way and I'll tie your tail in a knot."

Sora glanced towards the wall across from the door. The place where the Restoration Committee's computer and blackboard used to be was now empty. "Hey Merlin, what are you thinking about putting over there?" He asked, pointing.

"Hrm?" Merlin responded. He had been preoccupied summoning up tea cups. "Oh, I don't really know exactly, but I'm thinking something with a sort of ancient Britain noise to it. Unfortunately I've lost all my artifacts from that time period quite a while ago... probably before any of you youngsters were around..."

Sora glanced between Emily and Zidane to see if either of them had any idea what he was talking about, and they both shrugged and shook their heads 'no'.

"But come, sit down!" Merlin said, gesturing towards the table as he began to pour tea from the tip of his wand into each of the four cups. "I assume you have a reason for visiting me today?" He looked specifically at the girl in their group and asked, "Is something the matter, Emily?"

"No, actually, things are rather good," she said. She wasn't entirely sure if it was true outside of the news about the book, but she said it anyway. As she and the other two approached the table, Emily added, "Sora thinks he has figured out a place where we can store all my dad's stuff."

"Oh really?" Merlin asked, a hit of amusement in his voice. "And where might that be, young lad?"

"Well, I was kind of thinking Pooh's storybook..."

Merlin missed a tea cup and sprayed the liquid all over the various books that were in front of him. After quickly cleaning that up, he said, "Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that!"

"... Well, you didn't have it sitting in front of you, since Sora took it," Zidane said. "Not your fault that it wasn't the first thing on your mind."

"The contrary!" Merlin said, now walking towards them with steaming cups of tea orbiting around his tall blue hat. "I've thought of that book quite often. It really is a fascinating artifact. I have dreamt of studying it and trying to figure out how it came into existence. Is it man-made? Or was it some sort of natural anomaly? But a world full of only Light, that no Darkness can truly penetrate... no, I daren't put it to any sort of tests." As he sat down and each cup of tea flew to one of the teens, he added, "Though, that same reason may be why we don't want to put her belongings into the book."

After finishing a sip of her tea, Emily asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, objects from the outside... even humans... could be very dangerous to the book's delicate... let's call it an ecosystem. For example, you wouldn't place a lion into a forest where the largest natural predator was a bobcat. It would terribly disrupt the balance of things. Animals would be forced to act in ways that they hadn't ever before to survive."

"Merlin, I don't think that putting some photos, clothes and furniture into the book is going to be a threat to Pooh and his friends," Sora said.

"It might be harmless," Merlin continued. "But then again, it might not. Though I agree, it is probably the best course of action to present itself thus far. If we were to keep her belongings somewhere secure, that only she could access, then the book and it's inhabitance might not be harmed."

Thunder clapped outside. Emily jumped a little. Merlin, unfazed, took a sip of his tea before saying, "Sora, perhaps we should pop on over to the Shera and get the book. I could probably create somewhere that is magically secure from the rest of the world."

"Sure," he said. He looked at his tea, which he hadn't touched, and then at Merlin. "Like... now?"

"Of course now!" the wizard replied. "What good is it sitting here if we have already worked out our course of action?" He looked to Zidane, and then Emily. "We'll be back shortly, then."

Sora had time to get out, "Wait, wh-" before they both vanished in two puffs of blue smoke.

There was a long moment of silence before Emily asked, "Are things usually this weird?"

"Don't ask me, I haven't been on this train for long," Zidane replied honestly. "But, if I had to wager a guess, I'd say that yeah, it's probably something like this most of the time."

Emily giggled as Zidane eyed his cup of tea suspiciously. He, too, hadn't consumed any of it yet. "You know, I don't think I've had tea for a whole year."

Emily picked up her cup again and said, "Really? I like tea a lot," before taking another drink.

"I never much cared for it," the thief replied. "But a friend of mine loved it. She made me drink it a couple of times."

Emily lowered her cup and asked, "Ornery ex-girlfrined?"

He smirked. "You could say that..." He picked up his cup, lifted it to his nose, and sniffed it. "Hrm. That actually doesn't smell all that bad."

"It is magic tea."

"I suppose that's true..." He took a quick drink, then promptly spit it out. "No, on second thought, I still don't like tea..."

"Smooth," Emily mocked. "So... out of curiosity, are you from Radiant Garden originally?"

"No," he answered bluntly as he glanced around the house, probably looking for a place to discreetly discard his tea. "I'm from another world. I wound up here a little more than a year ago."

"Oh... did your world collapse or something?"

"No. I was about to get offed, and a friend of mine used his magical prowess to get me away... he didn't have time to aim properly, though. Eventually I drifted here." He stood, walked towards the front door, opened it, and dumped the contents of his cup out onto the cobblestone steps. Just as he was about to shut the door, a flash of light exploded into the room, followed shortly by a clap of thunder. Emily shuddered at the sound.

"You okay?" Zidane asked as he walked back up to the table, his cup now filled with rainwater.

"Yeah, fine," she replied. "Just... thunder bothers me."

"You got a phobia of storms or something?" he asked, sitting down.

"No. I love rain, and I don't mind storms... I just... I've always had a problem with thunder. For as long as I can remember."

"Hmm..."

"What about you?" 

"Hmm?" 

"Well, since we're sitting here, doing this thing..."

Zidane thought for a moment, then set down his cup. "I don't think I've ever had a particularly strong phobia or anything." He looked back towards the door for just a moment, contemplating. "For a while I didn't like the ocean."

"Excuse me?"

"The ocean." He looked at her. "You ever seen one?"

She frowned. "No. There... well, there was a massive body of water outside of Radiant Garden before the Heartless destroyed it, but I only saw it once or twice that I can remember, and... well, from what I understand, it wasn't exactly the same thing as an ocean."

Zidane sighed, still looking towards the door, as if he expected something to happen, or someone to come in. "... Massive body of water. I saw the ocean a couple times when I was a kid, back on my own world, and it scared the crap out of me. So limitless. You couldn't see where it ended. And from the top, it looked so flat, and calm. But underneath, there was a whole other world that no one really understood. Full of... beautiful things. But dangerous things. And if you were ever to get there, how would you distinguish between the two?" He looked back towards her. He was smiling, which surprised Emily, because his tone had been rather serious, maybe even kind of morbid, when he was looking towards the door. "I got over it, though."

"O-oh," she stuttered quietly. "That's good."

Zidane was hasty to change the subject. "So, what do you think of Sora? You two spent a lot of time together before he left."

She grinned. "He's cute... not exactly what I expected from a famous hero that every teenager in Radiant Garden gossips about, but... I'm glad he's just kind of a down-to-earth guy."

"Sometimes I think he's a little too down to earth," Zidane commented, putting his hands behind his head and his feet on the table.

Emily rolled her eyes before saying, "What do you think is taking them so long? They didn't have the book in a safe with multiple codes and a timer, did they?"

"Dunno," Zidane said. "It probably doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I took it out of the one place Sora always keeps it and hid it in plain sight on top of his dresser."

"You're evil." 

"Oh, I know it."

**The Jedi Temple...**

Anderson looked up at the woman, who slowly broke into a run towards him. Anderson hurled both his pistol and the clip he still hadn't loaded at her, but she cut them both in mid air. He turned and dove for the rocket launcher. It still had one rocket in it, but it was open from when he had started to refill it. He rolled over it, picking up up, and turned around to look directly at the woman. She reared back to throw her saber just as he snapped the top of the weapon shut and fired. The rocket sailed towards her just as she let her weapon fly. It sliced through the rocket in mid air, and the resulting explosion destroyed the hilt of the weapon.

Before she could react, Anderson had charged through the smoke and punched her across the face with his armored fist. As she reeled, he threw a kick at her head, nocking her to her knees. However, before he could finish her off, a laser blast flew at her from behind, ripping through her torso.

Anderson looked to the door through which he and Tex had entered to see Sienex leading the rest of the squad towards them.

Ice pointed down the bridge towards the rest of the fight. "Is that Tex?"

"Yeah."

"Damn, she's good."

As they said that, Tex was in the process of grabbing the rifle out of one man's hand, throwing it at another so that he fell off the bridge, and then grabbing the man she had stolen the gun from in the first place and hurling him towards an alien wielding a lightsaber. The alien lowered his weapon in an effort not to kill his partner, but just as the man slammed into the alien Tex fired her shotgun and the shell ripped through both of them, splattering blood all over a woman who had been taking aim at Tex.

The woman's gun jammed just as Tex activated another plasma grenade. She hurled it directly at the woman, and it stuck to her chest. She tried to pull it off for just a moment before it exploded, sending her body flying over the edge as well.

Just as it seemed that the remaining forces were preparing to retreat, Sienex and the rest of the team came charging up, their weapons picking off the runners like they had huge targets drawn on the back of their heads.

"Hey," Anderson said, stopping next to Tex, carefully reloading the rocket launcher. "How's it goin'?"

"Decent," she answered. "Thanks for holding them off."

"Yeah, don't mention it. Wasn't_ that_ hard."

**The Castle that Never Was...**

Cobb scowled at Pete as Maleficent's servant shut the door to his cell, which was literally made of Darkness.

"We'll see how long you last in there!" Pete laughed through the bared window. "Bet that big ol' Heart of yours 'll make a might fine Heartless! He he he!"

"If I'm going to die anyway, Pete, can I ask what your plan is?" Cobb said, pulling at the Dark handcuffs that restrained him.

"Sorry pal, no-can-do," he said smugly. "Cause there's always that itty-bitty chance that you break out, and we can't have that."

"Right," he said. "Itty-bitty."

_Wham!_

A goofy expression spread across Pete's face as he slumped down to the ground and out of Cobb's line of sight. A man with slicked back brown hair was looking down at him with a somewhat condescending expression. "I'd say this is going rather well, wouldn't you?"

"What the took you so long, Arthur?" Cobb asked as he approached the door.

"Well, I was here, but it sounded like you were trying to work something out of him, so I waited."

Arthur vanished for a moment, apparently searching Pete, and after a moment or two, the door swung open. Cobb walked out and thrust his bound hands at his partner. "Get these damn things off me. I think the Darkness is getting to my head."

"Yeah, yeah," he said, rolling his eyes. He grabbed another of the five keys on Pete's keychain. This one had a suspicious shape because there weren't any teeth on it. "This looks fitting."

Cobb held his hands up and spread them as far apart as he could. Arthur swiped downwards with the new key and destroyed the handcuffs.

Cobb shook his hands out as Arthur dropped the keychain onto the ground carelessly. "Great. You got a gun?"

Arthur nodded and lifted up his handgun, pointing it directly at Cobb's head. "You sure?"

"I'd rather not stay in this witch's mind any longer than I have to," Cobb answered. "We only wanted to find out whether she'd betray me or not. No need to screw around finding more secrets." He looked down at Pete. "Plus, if she leaves that room with the table or the couple of hallways surrounding it, she's going to realize this is all fake."

"Yeah, shame we couldn't do better reconnoissance," Arthur muttered. "The dream will start to fall apart as soon as I wake up, so I'll give you a couple extra seconds to get ready." Then he blasted Cobb in the head, waited for a few moments, and blasted himself.

**Radiant Garden...**

After an extremely long, tiring walk, Jacob finally reached one of the spots on the wall surrounding the city which featured a Rebellion-constructed lift. Since it was so dark, he had a hard time getting them to notice him, but he fired his gun off a couple of times and the flashes indicated his presence well enough. As the lift came down, Jacob looked down at Terra's face, which was covered with rain. She was still trembling, though she had stopped talking shortly after they got out of the Great Maw. He hadn't been able to make out much of what she was staying, but she had clearly been terrified by something.

The lift reached the ground and a Rebellion soldier swung a small gate open so that Jacob could get on. There was a cover over the lift, so they were no longer in the rain. As it started to rise, Jacob sat Terra down against the side of the lift and slapped her gently a couple of times, but she didn't react.

"What happened to her?" the soldier asked.

"Not entirely sure," Jacob replied honestly.

"We saw some sort of activity out in the Maw a while ago, but we didn't mobilize to check it out because it was fighting with the Heartless, and it stopped rather quickly-"

"I don't know what it was," Jacob said, turning around to look at the soldier. "It was bipedal, but it ran away before I could get a better look." He looked back at Terra. "I think that it got her, but I'm not entirely sure what she was doing out there in the first place." He looked at the man again. "No one was reported leaving the city, right?"

"No... just the workers that take care of the outside wall, and a couple of patrols... I think someone else went out there alone, but they had clearance... Are you him?"

"Yeah," Jacob replied. "But no one saw a woman sneaking out?" 

"Not that I heard of, sir."

They reached the top of the wall and the guards waiting for them swung the gate open.

"You were stuck out there in that storm?" one of them asked. "You alright, kid?"

"Peachy," Jacob replied sarcastically as he picked up Terra again. "Are there any transports heading towards command? I'd rather not have to walk through this misery."

** Merlin's house...**

When Sora and Merlin finally reappeared, the elderly wizard was scolding Sora for misplacing such a valuable object.

"I swear, if we hadn't found it I would have cast a spell that made it seem as though you were touching a red-hot iron every time you sat down!"

"Really Merlin, I have no idea how it got there! I love that book I'd never lose it-"

Zidane and Emily glanced at each other. Zidane seemed to ask, _"Should I tell him?"_. Emily only shrugged.

"Well, now that we've found the object in question," Merlin said, ignoring the pleas that Sora was pouring out. "I suggest that we all go to Emily's house and begin to pack her things. I'll send them into the book, and you lot can actually find a place to put them."

"I know a place," Sora said nervously, afraid that Merlin might snap at him. When he didn't, Sora continued. "There's this house with a swing outside it. Someone used to live there a long time ago... but I think they left or something. The Pooh and everyone never go near it, so it could be a good place to put her things."

Merlin nodded, placed the book on the table, and opened it. "How about you lot go ahead in so that I only have to teleport myself and the book?"

"Don't see why not," Zidane said. "It's probably nicer in there anyway..." Zidane tapped his tail against the pages of the book, and in a flash of light, he vanished into the pages.

"Wow..." Emily gasped, wide-eyed. "Trippy..."

"Ladies first?" Sora suggested. Emily blushed ever so slightly and took his offer. She got up out of her chair, looked between Merlin and the book, and placed a hand on the pages. She, too vanished instantly in a flash of light.

**The Jedi Temple...**

Sienex scowled at the large expanse of bridge which had been destroyed, effectively cutting them off from the Jedi Archives.

"Router," he said, turning to face the rest of his squad. The soldier in question stepped forward.

"You want me to find an alternate route," she said. She was the only female on the team other than Tex. She had been brought on for her IQ, not her abilities with a gun. Her armor indicated that she wasn't made for special combat situations, as she just wore the same armor that any Stormtrooper would be decked in, except for a few minor modifications that allowed for better mobility.

"I'm already on it," Router continued, holding up her wrist. A hologram came out of a small device strapped to her armor, creating a sort of menu. As she walked towards the edge of the bridge, she said, " 'Alice', pull up the schematic for the Jedi Temple..."

As Sienex walked off back down the bridge to do something or other, most of the troopers began chatting since they had a lull in the action. Tex had found herself next to Scarecrow, so she decided to ask him, "Who's Alice?"

"Router's personal A.I.," he answered. "Analyst. Apparently she's made modifications to it since the Empire first assigned it to her. Primarily there so that Router doesn't have to be so hands-on with her data. That way she doesn't have too many distractions if she's working during a fight." Scarecrow looked at Tex. "I've heard some rumors going around that you might be getting an A.I. yourself."

"I heard that Vader is considering assigning one to me," she replied. "But I've got no idea if it's true or not. I haven't spoken with him face-to-face for months."

"I don't think that anyone on this team has spoken to Vader face-to-face, save Sienex, myself, Ice, and Router."

"Why Router?"

"Apparently he recruited her personally. She was some whiz-kid who graduated top of her class at some prestigious Imperial academy somewhere about seven years ago. Apparently she was also the youngest in her class."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"She was fourteen in a class full of students in their early twenties."

"... Damn."

"Yeah. I know. She's cold as hell, though. Won't talk to anyone. I got all that off her file. There's a rumor going around that she might have even met the Emperor, but I don't believe it."

Tex looked back at Scarecrow. "What about you? You said that you and Ice had met-"

"Only because we're Sienex's main men," he said, glancing down the bridge at their leader. "Sienex knew him before he was such a prestigious leader."

"He did?"

"Apparently Sienex saved Vader's life years ago, and Vader returned the favor."

"Right..." Tex casually scanned the rest of her squad-mates. "What about Anderson? What's his story?"

"He's filler, really. He set some sort of record in basic training a few years ago, and Vader put him here to fill out our ranks. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't last much longer."

Tex looked at Scarecrow again. "He seemed to be able to handle himself."

"That isn't what I meant. Sienex hates rookies. Even if he isn't exactly a greenhorn, I'm willing to bet that he gets sent on more high-risk missions than anyone else."

"What about Router? You made her sound sort of green."

"Yeah, but as much as he hates to admit it, Sienex needs her. Just like now."

Just as he finished talking, Router turned and started walking back down the bridge towards Sienex, walking straight through anyone who couldn't be bothered to get out of her way. "Sienex! I've got something..."

**Radiant Garden...**

Sora, Emily, and Zidane exited the book at nearly the same time, appearing in a now completely bare version of Emily's kitchen. Merlin was standing before them, holding the book.

"Well, that should about do it. But there's still the issue of where Ms. Emily will be staying now. I assume that you don't want to go to the orphanage-"

"She could come with us," Sora suddenly suggested.

Zidane looked at Sora in a rather skeptic way, and Emily said, "Uh... no, I don't think that I should-"

"No really, there's plenty of room on board since most of the people who were traveling with us aren't anymore. And I'm sure Kairi would be glad to have another girl aboard since... well, she's the only one."

"It does sound like a feasible option, Emily," Merlin commented.

"We'll have to ask everyone else if it's okay though, Sora," Zidane said.

"I-I really don't know-" 

"Seriously Emily, you should come with us. Well... life in the Rebellion is usually kind of boring. But I've kind of got a hunch that we're gonna go somewhere else first. You could come with us for a while and decide after that! Who knows what'll happen!"

"I, for what it is worth, think it could be a valuable opportunity, Emily," Merlin said. "You'd be able to get away from the bad memories here and spend some time with your friends. See some new places at the same time."

Emily looked awkwardly between Sora and Merlin before the Keybearer said, "Whadda y' say?"

There was a pause before Emily replied, "Well... I suppose getting away for a few days couldn't hurt. I'll just need to go and see someone first."

**Later...**

Emily walked through the rain as quickly as she could, the hood of the coat Merlin had conjured up for her covering her face. She crossed through the courtyard towards headquarters, and approached the guarded door.

"I'm here to see Fox!" she said over the rain.

"Thought you would have picked another time to come and see him than in the middle of a storm!" one of the troopers replied. "But you're too late. They just marched him out of here twenty minutes ago."

"What?"

"Apparently he's being moved somewhere else. If you can get into the Citadel, get to the hanger, and somehow procure some face time with him from the guards who are under strict orders to keep him isolated, then you aren't too late."

"No body likes a wise-ass!" Emily shouted. "Where are they taking him?"

"Classified," he said. "No one is supposed to know. In other words, he's being sent to the Rebellion fleet."

"But you just said it was classified!"

"The only incoming communication early enough today for them to have time to mobilize was from the fleet. Good luck getting out there, kid."

Emily turned and looked up at the Citadel, which was barely visible, looming sinisterly in the dark storm clouds. She thought for a second that she saw the light coming from the engines of a ship through the clouds, but it might as well have been lightning. She glanced down the road that lead towards where the Shera was docked, spared one last look at the doors she had become all too familiar with over the last six months, and then took off.

**Elsewhere...**

Jacob staggered as his foot fell into a pothole filled with water. He nearly dropped Terra but managed to hop forwards out of the hole. A curse escaped his lips before he stumbled into an alley, ducking under the cover of an outcropping roof. He crouched down and leaned Terra against the wall before glancing at his ankle. Didn't look or feel twisted, but he didn't really notice that kind of stuff all the time, especially when he was already soaked and tired from walking through the wilderness and the city after that.

He cupped his hands and held them out in the rain for a moment. Water collected before he turned back and splashed it right in the blonde's face, but it didn't effect her.

_"Of course it didn't, dumb ass,"_ he thought._ "We just walked through the rain for ages."_

He heard much heavier splashing for a couple of moments. He looked out towards the street to see a couple of kids run by, laughing as they splashed in the puddles. Their laughs echoed down the narrow passage, bouncing back and forth and repeating hauntingly.

It got annoyingly loud, and Jacob started to wonder why it wasn't dying naturally like sounds normally would have...

He heard Terra thud to the ground behind him, and when he turned, he saw her thrashing about on the ground as though she was having a seizure. Veins in her neck were bulging out again, turning purple like they had out in the valley.

"Terra! Terra!" He tried to grab her, but she was jerking so hard that he couldn't keep a grip on her. He looked up and ran out onto the street to see if anyone was around who could help. "Hello? Hello! Mother (R-Rated)er!"

Suddenly, he felt something grab him from behind. He was spun around and hauled up into the air as long, skeletal fingers wrapped around his throat. His hands wrapped around that of his assailant, and he looked down at his attacker.

She was tall, with freakishly pale skin and long, unruly purple hair. She was nude, but none of the 'parts' that should have been jumping out at Jacob were there. Her hands had long fingers with point nails, and she had angry, sharp teeth making up an angry, sharp scowl.

"Bastard!" she screamed. Before Jacob had time to react, he had been thrown backwards and into the brick wall of the building across the street. He collapsed to the ground, but had already drawn his pistol and looked back up at the woman attacking him. Her hands were above her head, and a large spike of ice was forming rapidly. He shot at the spike and it exploded, shards flying everywhere. He dove to the side to avoid the explosion, and by the time he had looked back up, his assailant was floating in the air, several meters above the houses. Sparks of energy swirled around her, and slowly formed into a charged bolt of lightning.

Jacob turned and sprinted off down the street away from the monster just as the lightning struck the ground directly in front of him. He barely stopped short in time to avoid the blast, but the literal sonic blast that came from the resulting thunder blew him off his feet again. He landed hard on his back.

He rolled over onto his chest and aimed as best he could at the woman, unloading his entire clip in her direction. He was sure that several of them had hit, but she seemed unfazed by the impacts. Instead, she began to form balls of fire in both of her hands. Jacob discarded his clip and noticed with dismay that he only had one left. He hadn't exactly gone out expecting a fight. Jacob stood and reloaded, but began backing up in preparation for the coming attack.

"Terra!" he shouted, pointing his weapon at her. "It's Jacob! I'm not your enemy!"

"Silence!" she screamed. "I'll not be your puppet!"

She released her payloads, and Jacob responded by throwing himself to the ground to avoid the massive explosions of fire. The heat was so intense that the rain around him instantly transformed into steam.

He looked back up at her and tossed his gun to the ground. "I'm your friend, Terra! I won't hurt you!"

"He didn't hurt me either!" she yelled. "But I sure hurt people!"

"He?" Jacob asked. "He who?"

"He... he... Ga... Gargh!"

She lurched, her large, grotesque hands grabbing her head as though she was in pain. A horrible, animal screech tore out through the air at the exact same time as a loud clap of thunder, and she came crashing to the ground.

Jacob only stared at her strange, morphed body for a few moments. Then he hastily, almost fearfully, grabbed his gun off the ground. He glanced around down the street, his gun up. It didn't look like anyone had bothered coming out to look.

Good.

He turned back to Terra and slowly approached her with his gun still up. Her body was face down and sprawled out all over the place, slowly changing color. She was morphing back into her original shape. It seemed that her clothes were coming back out of her skin, and her hair was growing back in and forming back into a ponytail.

He crouched over her and watched as she completed his transformation back to normal. As soon as she was completely human again (or at least Jacob was pretty sure she was human), he turned her over onto her back. The rain began to slow, though the sky was still dark. Terra's eyes opened slowly, and they were rather out of focus, trying to look at something very close, but directing her attention to the dark clouds.

"Terra?"

She blinked, then looked up at Jacob. She glanced again at the sky, then, with a grunt, began to sit up.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

A hand went to her forehead. "I... I don't know."

She stared off down the street, and Jacob stared at her. There was silence broken only by the rain which was near stopping and the distant sounds of vehicles moving about.

"I remembered some stuff."

Jacob had other things top of mind that he wanted to ask Terra about, but he decided that it would probably be better not to stress her. "Uh... great! Like what?"

"It isn't memories. It's just knowledge."

"... What... kind of knowledge?"

"... Rinoa mentioned that she was pregnant."

_"Rinoa? Pregnant? Well, I can't exactly think about that right now..."_

"And?"

"And then I suddenly knew how long you have to wait before the gender of the child can be determined. And then I remembered..." She glanced around. "I remembered exactly what kind of explosive and how much of it to plant right here if I wanted to level all these buildings." She looked at Jacob. "I remembered exactly how far I'd have to drop you to kill you." She stood up and took a few slow steps away, and Jacob stayed on the ground, staring up at her. Terra's head swiveled towards one of the alleys as a hovering tank cruised by on another street. "I remembered all the precise points I would want to target on one of those Rebellion T2-B tanks to destroy it, and where all of its blind spots are."

Jacob stood up and walked up behind her, holstering his gun before placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Terra? Let's go back and meet up with everyone else."

"Everyone else?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at him. Her eyes were hauntingly empty. "Sora. Priority 1 target. Consider armed and dangerous. Apprehend if at all possible. Report sightings and/or contact to an Imperial officer A.S.A.P."

"Kairi. Priority 4 target. Under heavy escort. Apprehend if at all possible. Report sightings and/or contact to an-"

Jacob punched her hard across the face. She crumpled backwards, but didn't hit the ground. She staggered, and Jacob grabbed her to insure that she didn't fall. She murmured one word:

"Kefka..."

**This chapter would have been longer, but I really, really wanted to get something out. I'll just attach what would have been the ending of this chapter onto the beginning of four.**

** Anyway, please review! I've only got one person reviewing but I know for sure that there are more of you! You're crushing my fragile self esteem, you selfish bastards! It'd be better if you'd just come out and flame me to death!**

** Oh, yeah. Try going back and reading the first part of the fight scene in the Jedi Temple with 'Derezzed' from Tron: Legacy playing in the background. Bad-ass!**

** So, let's see... I've got to write this, Normal Life chapter 2, and I've got two other fics in the works (one of which is Kingdom Hearts, and the other isn't), and then I've got life to deal with as well. So, you can expect the next chapter out... I dunno. Sometime.**

** But really, after the next chapter, everything is going to pick up and it's going to be SOOOOO much easier to write. It'll flow like water down a smooth stone.**

** Also, what does everyone think of Emily? I know we haven't seen much of her character yet, but I assure you that she is going to be with us for quite a while and she has yet to see much expansion and characterization. Any feedback on what we've already seen of her will be appreciated though.**

** One last thing and then I'll let you go. For those of you who still haven't seen Inception, first of all SCREW YOU and second of all I understand if that section with Cobb and Arthur was confusing. Here's the idea: They invaded Maleficent's dream and simulated Cobb's return to get his pay to find out whether or not she was actually going to betray him. And in the mythology of Inception, if you die in the dream, you wake up in the real world. That's why they shot themselves.**


	4. Inflight Entertainment

** I. Hate. My. Liiiiifffffeeeeeeeee.**

** It's been forever. And despite all the hits that my counter says I'm getting, I still haven't got any reviews. I don't want to complain, but come on people...**

** Sorry about that. Anyway, I thought that I had a little less than half of this chapter done but then I realized that it sucked and was boring. So I started from scratch.**

** :(**

** Chapter 4: Inflight Entertainment**

** Radiant Garden**

** Landing Platform**

** Local Time: Noon**

Jacob was hoping to avoid any questions regarding Terra, but he had no such luck. Sora, Zidane, and Merlin all showed up at about the same exact time as he did, making it impossible to disregard their inquiries about the unconscious girl in his arms.

Luckily, before he was so annoyed that he absolutely had to answer, Emily came running up through the rain. Apparently she had been invited to come along. Cid was going to be_ thrilled._

There was something in her eyes though. A sort of determination. From what Sora was saying, she had been reluctant before. Now it seemed she needed to get on the Shera, no matter what. She had seen or heard something since their last meeting.

Jacob used the opportunity to slip away. Eventually someone had the good sense to advise that they all go aboard instead of standing in the rain (it had been going on for so long that no one really noticed it anymore). As they walked aboard, Merlin grabbed Sora and quickly asked him, "I say, do you still have any of the summon charms you collected on your last little adventure?"

"No, unfortunately," Sora answered. "I'm not sure when it happened... The last time I used one of them was at the World That Never Was. I didn't notice that they'd gone until after I got back to Destiny Islands... and it still took a couple of days."

"Well, then here," Merlin said, reaching into his robe. "Someone in town had one, and they couldn't figure out how to use it... I suppose you could put it to good use, my boy." He held it up. It was a sort of green-yellow color, with a picture of a fedora in the middle. "I haven't tried it, but I'm sure you'll find some use for this little trinket."

Sora took it with a small smile. "Thanks Merlin. Now let's get inside..."

They both stepped into the ship. When they did, Cid and Jacob had already engaged each other.

"-hours ago," Cid was saying. "I told em' that I hadn't seen her. Where the hell'd you find her? What happened? And who the shit's the red-head?"

"Please, Cid, not now..." Jacob grumbled. He turned back to the others as he walked into the ship. "Sora, what happened to Kairi?"

"I left her at Rinoa's," Sora answered. "Terra stayed there as well. What happ-?"

"I don't know, okay?" Jacob yelled. "You need to go and find Kairi and tell her we're leaving a soon as possible." With that, Jacob stormed off into the ship.

"What's up his ass?" Cid asked.

"You know as much as we do," Zidane replied. He looked back at Sora. "If Kairi was out looking for Terra, there's no telling where she is."

"Maybe she'll come back here?" Emily suggested.

"If she doesn't, Stitch will," Zidane said. "And he could sniff her out easy."

"I'd rather not wait for him to show up," Sora said. "Jacob didn't look very happy. A speedy departure is probably what we need, even if we haven't had much time to visit."

"I'd be happy to carry on an messages for you," Merlin suggested. "And I could find Kairi easily enough... though I'm not very familiar with Stitch, so that could take some time."

Zidane shook his head. "No, I can get Stitch. Just watch." He grabbed one of his daggers and very carefully pricked the tip of his finger. "He could smell my blood from halfway across the city. That'll bring him running."

"Very well. I'll track down Princess Kairi, then," Merlin said. With that, he drew his wand from his beard, flicked his wrist, and vanished.

Even though Sora knew that Merlin referred to Kairi as princess because of her position and not her lost status, it still bothered him slightly. Trying to force it out of his mind, he turned to Emily and said, "So, you've been here less than a minute and things are already heating up. Exciting, huh?"

Before she had the opportunity to answer, Cid cut in. "Hold it just a damn second! What the hell's she doin' here, huh?"

Sora replied, "She's coming along." Then, remembering that she hadn't actually said for sure that she was coming, he looked back and said, "You are coming, right?"

"Yes. Definitely. Are you guys going to regroup with the Rebel fleet eventually?"

Sora opened his mouth to reply, but Cid said, "What's it to ya?"

Emily stammered out, "I-I'm just curious..."

The 'bull' in "Bullshit!" seemed to pop out of Cid's mouth. "Why're you asking such specific questions?"

"Cid, chill out!" Sora said, coming to Emily's aid. "She's fine! She's not like an Imperial spy or something."

Cid growled, but didn't say anything. He walked off into the ship, presumably heading off to make last-minute checks before they took off. Sora looked to Emily and said, "He doesn't know what he's talking about. Don't worry about it."

"R-right. Thanks, Sora."

Just then, Zidane spotted something moving towards them in the dark. Small, and low to the ground. As it got closer, he confirmed that it was definitely Stitch. The small blue alien jumped up the ramp onto the ship and landed right in front of Zidane.

"Zidane! Me smell-!"

"I'm fine, Stitch," Zidane said. "Just needed to call you here somehow. We're leaving."

Stitch stared blankly up at him for a second, then hissed and swiped his claws in the air, as if demanding an apology for making him worry. Without waiting for any further comment, he darted off into the interior of the ship.

**Shortly...**

Sora lead Emily into the ship's interior, towards Kairi's room. "There's an empty room next to her," he said. "I bet she'll be happy to have the company."

"Don't you think we should wait until she gets here to ask?" Emily asked, glancing around at the doors. "So... are there a ton of rooms on this ship?"

"There are certain areas that have rooms," Sora replied. "Basically wherever there didn't need to be stuff that ran the ship. Just in case, you know, we need to help evacuate a world or something."

"Oh... that's cool, I guess..."

Just then they heard footsteps coming down the hall behind them. They turned around to see Kairi coming around the corner into the hall. When she saw Emily, she didn't seem all that surprised. "Merlin said that you were coming along," she said as she approached. "What are you guys doing down here?"

"I was thinking she could set up next door to you?" Sora asked.

"Is that what Emily wants?" Kairi said, looking at the not-as-red-red-head.

"Er... I don't really know..."

"I just thought you could use the female company," Sora said.

Kairi looked at him out the corner of her eye._ "What, is he discriminating against me now?" _she thought. _"What is wrong with him?"_

"Is that okay?" Emily questioned.

Kairi regained her composure and smiled. "Yeah, sure. That sounds like it'll be great." She looked at Sora and said in a somewhat condescending tone. "Care to tell me why we're leaving so soon? I wasted the entire time we were here scrambling around looking for Terra. I would have liked to actually spend some time with my sister."

"Hey, it's not my fault," Sora said, holding his hands up defensively. "Jacob said we're leaving, and he didn't say why. He carried Terra back onto the ship and she was unconscious and he was pissed off about something. That's all I know."

"This Jacob guy..." Emily said. "He isn't very... uh... stable, is he?"

"I guess that's one way of putting it," Sora replied. Just as Kairi was about to say something else, Sora started up again. "Oh! I forgot. I walked in on him making a call with someone on the way here."

"In the middle of space?" Kairi asked.

Sora ignored her and said, "He was talking with someone named Ben. And he said that he had you with him, and some other people he wanted Ben to meet. And... that... uh, some weird stuff that was only letters. Like the CRI and the NCA or something. Said that they would be 'more attentive', so he was going to land at the car. Whatever the heck that means."

"Shouldn't we just go ask him?" Emily inquired.

Sora and Kairi laughed sarcastically.

**On the bridge...**

"Would you mind telling me just where in the hell we're going?" Cid demanded as he stepped up to the controls.

"I told you, just take off," Jacob muttered in response, straightening his glasses. "I've got the coordinates, so you don't have to worry about that."

"I ain't asking because I need directions," Cid said. "I'm asking because I want to know where we're going. So you better tell me or this ship ain't getting two feet off the ground, ya' hear?"

Jacob rolled his eyes. "Nowhere special. Just Land of Liberty."

Cid looked at him strangely. "You mean that place where you were stuck after Radiant Garden collapsed?"

"Exactly."

"And just why are we goin' there?"

"I've got a friend who needs help with something," Jacob replied simply. "We can go straight to the Rebellion fleet after."

Cid shook his head as though he didn't approve, and then started up his craft. The rain slowed as the engines were warming up, and just as they picked up off the ground, it stopped entirely. "Do you have any idea how long this little detour is going to last us?"

"Probably just a couple of days," Jacob answered. "Shouldn't be anything too exciting." He looked at Cid seriously. "We can't land the ship there, though."

"Fine, I'll just stay with it in orbit."

"We can't do that either. I told you they are capable of short-range space travel, didn't I? They can see even farther."

"Well then just what the hell do you propose I do for your 'couple of days'?" Cid asked as they passed through the clouds.

"I don't care. You can come back here if you like."

Cid didn't reply.

"Did I ever upload the coordinates for the Earth system?" Jacob asked.

"I don't think so."

Jacob turned and approached a computer console. "Then I'll just input them now..."

They passed out of the atmosphere of the world just as Jacob set their course. "Go ahead and engage warp as soon as you're clear," Jacob told Cid.

They pushed a little farther away from Radiant Garden, checked to make sure there weren't any other obstacles or ships in their vicinity, and then Cid launched them.

**Later...**

Zidane, Sora, Emily, and Kairi had all been called to the room that was commonly referred to as the ship's lounge, but that was primarily just because it included two sofas and a TV off behind the table where they ate meals. Jacob met them there, and made an announcement.

"We're going to the Earth system."

He received confused looks, or annoyed looks from people who were used to being confused.

"A system is a group of worlds packed so tightly together that they form one massive world with small boundaries connecting them."

All confused looks.

"It'll make sense when we get there. And, by the way, we'll get there in..." he glanced at his watch, "A little less that twenty-seven hours."

"Are you kidding?" Emily asked. "We're going to be on this thing for more than a day?"

"It's not so bad," Sora started. But before he could finish, Jacob jumped in. "Yes, it isn't all that bad. I've got some inflight entertainment for you."

Kairi looked at him quizzically. "What?"

"Well, these worlds that we are going to... or specifically, the world we are going to, Land of Liberty... has a long history and many different advances and customs that will be utterly foreign to you. Luckily for you-"

"Hold on a second," Kairi said. "Land of Liberty... you've mentioned that before. That was where you were stuck after Radiant Garden fell."

"Yes," he replied. "And I'm afraid that I developed something of an unhealthy interest in the place. Spent almost all of my time there studying the history and cultures of Earth. Wrote several journals on different topics and such." He reached into a pocket in his pants and pulled out a disk. "Luckily for you, I've compiled the most important bits about Earth onto this one DVD. I thought it would be good if you were to watch this on the way there."

All of the teens looked at each other, and then back at Jacob.

"This sounds a lot like school," Sora said.

"I assure you, it's very interesting," Jacob replied. "You know me, I'm a boring humorless stick in the mud, right?"

"No, you've got a sense of humor, you're just a jerk," Kairi said.

Jacob ignored her comment and continued. "Well, if it interested me for years, it's got to be riveting, right?"

"We'll watch the stupid movie," Zidane said. "But only if you get out and shut up."

Jacob smiled and put the disk down on the table. "It's only a couple of hours long. I'm not saying that you have to watch it in one sitting." With that, he turned and walked out.

**The Jedi Temple...**

Scarecrow kicked the grate blocking the way out of a vent, and it came out of position and fell to the ground below. He glanced out and saw the vast Jedi Archives below him, with high blue walls full of data storage units climbing all the way to the ceiling. None of them were close enough that he could climb down them, though.

He looked back at Tex and Router, who were in the vent behind him. "You sure there isn't another way in?" he asked.

"Not one that wouldn't take us through old security systems, which may or may not be offline," Router replied. She spoke quickly; she wasn't much for wasted time.

Tex detached the magnetic grappling hook that she had been provided with from her hip. She stuck it's magnetic tip to the vent directly above the hole Scarecrow had opened. "You first," she said to Scarecrow, tossing the rope into the hole.

Scarecrow grabbed the rope and slid down it all the way to the floor of the room. Tex and Router were close behind.

When Router hit the ground, she immediately started talking again. "Those fake jedi will probably have a way in here, if they aren't already watching us right now. I'm going to try and hack into the temple's security system and secure us a faster way out of here. Bring the grappling hook with us just in case."

Tex didn't respond verbally, instead yanking on the chord. It detached from the vent and came falling down towards her, but the entire rope magnetically looped back up and locked into place. She reattached the object and turned to Router. "So while you're doing that, where are we?"

"Well having someone to watch my back would be great," she replied in a very 'only because I need it' tone. She started to walk off, and then added, "One of you should actually start looking for the information we came here for in the first place."

They walked through the vast chamber for a few minutes before they came to an area which sported several computer consoles. Router sat down at one and held up her wrist. "Alice, get in there."

There was a flash, and what appeared to be a hologram of a woman flickered above her arm for a moment, then vanished.

"Is it safe to assume that one of you knows how to operate a computer?" Router asked sarcastically as she started typing.

"I'll do it," Tex replied, sitting down at the next station. The computer was slow, and the screen flickered every now and then, but it was still operational. She clicked through a couple of windows before she came to a 'Database Search' page. She quickly typed in, '_Temple of the Princesses of Heart_'. She was about to initiate the search when a glowing female head appeared on screen.

"Do you require assistance?" it asked. It flickered, and he voice stuttered a bit, but the program was operational.

"I was just imputing my search topic," Tex replied. "Can you pull up the information on this world?"

"The Temple of the Princesses of Heart," the voice read. "Do you have authorization to access this file?"

Tex glanced at Router. "How do I get past this thing?"

Router sighed. "Alice, get into her system. Shut down that A.I. and get us past whatever security blocks there are."

For a moment nothing happened, but then the head on Tex's screen flickered one last time and then vanished. Then a window came up, which read '_Access granted_'.

"Simple enough," Router said. "Get back over here, I'm not finished with our escape route."

Tex realized that she was talking to her A.I., and went back to the file. It read:

_The Temple of the Princesses of Heart. Classification level 0. Original headquarters of the ancient Legion of Light. Home to the Princesses of Heart after the first Great War and until The Keyblade War. This world contained a door which allowed passage directly into Kingdom Hearts. It also housed the largest pooling of pure, physical light in the physical galaxy. All routes to this world were sealed off several years after the Keyblade War. No one has reached this world or departed from it in thousands of years. It's location is completely unknown._

"Shit," Tex said aloud. "Even the smartest people in the galaxy don't know where it is."

"I suspected as much," Router said, still feverishly typing on her computer.

"Wait, you thought we wouldn't find anything?" Scarecrow asked. "They why are we here?"

"Well, what I think doesn't really matter," Router replied. "Besides, you only looked at the page for the world itself. How about giving the related worlds a look? We might find a link."

"We don't have time to go through everything in here," Tex said, looking back at the screen and quickly skimming the known statistics about the world.

"We don't need to," Router said. "As soon as Alice is done with our exit route she can download all related files. Anything that even mentions Princesses of Heart. Any other keywords she should add to the range?"

Tex looked back up at the description. "Yeah. Try... 'Legion of Light', 'the Great War', and 'The Keyblade War', and 'Kingdom Hearts'."

"Did you get that, Alice?" Router asked. Apparently she got an answer, because she said, "Good. Keep digging, then."

"Digging?" Scarecrow asked. He and Tex both glanced at Router's screen, which was filled with text. "That doesn't look like a map of the Templ-"

"That's enough looking!" Router shouted, waving them away. The pages all closed instantly, and a blueprint of the temple came up. "It looks like there's a small utility hallway near the rear entrance to the library. There are a couple of small, out of the way halls that we can follow that will eventually take us to an outdoor landing platform. We can have the rest of the team pick us up there."

Scarecrow and Tex gave each other suspicious looks before going back to Router. "And security?" Tex asked.

"Just some motion detecting lasers that'll lock us in if they're tripped," she answered. "No big deal, I can shut them off."

"And what if one of the jedi-impostor-guys gets on a computer and turns them back on?" Scarecrow said.

"Alice is writing a program that'll lock all control of the system," Router replied. "After she's done with that, she'll download all relevant files on the Temple, and we're good to go."

Tex glanced back at her computer, and after a few moments, she started a new search.

_Princess of Heart Kairi_.

"That won't do any good," Router said. "Princess Kairi was born four years after the Empire was established and the jedi were defeated. There won't be any record of her."

Tex hit enter anyway. The only page that came up was '_Princesses of Heart_', and it didn't have any information on the actual identities of individual Princesses.

"Alice started the download," Router said. "Close your stuff up, she'll be ready in just a second."

Tex sighed and closed her search before standing up. "That was a waste of time."

"I told you there wouldn't be any-"

"No, I meant overall. We still don't have anything on the Temple."

"We'll find something," Router said. "We'll find at least one world that's connected to it, and we'll find another clue there. It shouldn't be too difficult." There were a few moments of silence before Router started again. "Alice is done. We're going." She held up her arm, there was a flicker like before, and then there was nothing. Router stood and started talking again, this time with the radio on. "Sienex, we've found our exit route. Go to a small landing platform on the north west side of the temple, about fifty floors up. You'll probably beat us there, but we'll go as fast as we can."

_"Alright. We'll see you there. Do you have the information?"_

"No direct coordinates," Router replied. "But I downloaded all the information we could find as well as all related articles. If anything we'll be able to find a world that was once connected to our Temple."

_"Good. See you soon."_

As Sienex hung up, Tex asked, "So how come the the Empire didn't just download the whole archives when they first overthrew the jedi?"

Router didn't bother to turn around when she answered, "They were very illusive on that topic."

**On the Shera...**

Jacob hovered over Terra's unconscious body in a manner that most people would have found obsessive. He stared down at her face, watching for any slight change of expression or movement, but there was nothing. Just the same blank, ever-so-slightly pained face she'd had since he struck her.

Of course, now Jacob was feeling something like regret at hitting her. Was it the right thing to do? She had been talking as if she was a computer, so it seemed like the best thing to do was to take her out before some sort of pre-programmed suggestion took over or something. But now she was gone, and she could have been floating in nightmares for all he knew.

He heard a noise behind him. Jacob turned to see Stitch standing in the door, looking in a concerned manner towards Terra.

"She's going to be alright," Jacob promised. "But I actually have a favor I wanted to ask of you."

Stitch walked towards Jacob, standing on his hind legs, with his ears flattened down to his head. "Ih?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could stay and watch over Terra when we get to this world. In the first place, I don't think that the world we're going to would take kindly to small blue aliens- no offense-, And secondly, I've got to go down to this place and I'd like to take all of the others with me, other than Cid, of course. And I'd rather not leave her with just Cid, do you know what I mean?"

Stitch gave a sort of menacing giggle, indicating that he got Jacob's drift.

"So do you think you could do that for me?" Jacob asked.

"Ih! Stitch stay with Terra!" he replied. But then he seemed to have a second thought. "... Zidane stay with Stitch?"

"I'm not so sure about that," Jacob replied. "Depends on whether or not we can hide his tail... 'cause if we can, he's probably going to come with us."

Stitch looked slightly disappointed, but since nothing was certain, he wasn't too bothered.

"They're in the break room watching a little documentary on the world we're about to go to. If you want to go join them-"

Stitch stuck his tongue out and pointed at the back of his mouth before darting out of the room.

Jacob spared him a short laugh before sitting down and casting his never blinking gaze upon Terra. After a few minutes, he turned to his desk and slid open a drawer. There was a single pistol- subtle for him. The only reason there weren't more fire arms and weapons was because most of the drawer was taken up by a large stack of paper and a couple of pencils. He withdrew a single sheet, as well as a writing utensil, and began jotting something down.

He stopped after only a few words, and threw another glance at Terra, almost as if he had expected her to suddenly wake up the moment he turned his back on her. No such luck. He went back to his writing.

**The Castle That Never Was...**

Maleficent hovered over her crystal ball, as usual. She was rather stressed, and it showed in the strained expression that oh so selfishly obstructed her beauty. She was, almost subconsciously, making little circles in the air with her left hand, the green mist that filled the room following it in a spiral shape.

She had been observing the Shera, but seeing that there was nothing interesting at the moment since it was merely flying through space, she had decided to look for Cobb, who had yet to return for his payment. He had seemingly dropped off the grid- he wasn't on Hoth, obviously, and he didn't seem to be on his way to the castle, unless he was taking some strange, backwards, overly-complicated route.

He would have been back by now. He wouldn't have procrastinated. Something was amiss.

She needed to clear her head. She walked out of the dark room and into the hall, which she followed to the cockpit, where Pete was piloting the ship whilst carrying out conversation with Captain Hook.

"I don't get how you can just sail about aimlessly forever and ever like you do!" Pete said. "I'd 've loved to get out to sea, but without a purpose, or a course, what's the point?"

"The rivers you sailed confined you, me boy!" Hook replied with a hearty laugh, swishing his hook through the air once or twice. "Just sail'n is fine, but you're always bogged down with yer' jobs an' yer' destinations. And a river's nothn' but linearity! A man can truly be free at sea, I tells ya! Give me a dinghy in the ocean o'er a luxury steam boat on the river any day!"

"Excuse me, gentlemen," Maleficent said, announcing her presence. They both turned to look at her, though they wore different expressions. Hook looked slightly awkward, where Pete was trying and failing to conceal a 'I know why you're here and it's the same answer' look behind a polite smile.

"Good news, Maleficent," Pete said. "We've eliminated another forty worlds!"

"You say that every time I come here, Pete," she said.

"I guess you just have an uncanny sense of timing, then," Pete replied. He rarely got snippy with his master, but lately, now that he had a slightly longer leash and he was actually doing something he enjoyed (and wasn't padding out gameplay with incredibly easy boss fights), he was getting a bit bolder.

Maleficent had decided, thus far, not to squash him back into his place. "Very well then," she said simply. "Carry on, you two."

She turned and exited the bridge, but on the way back to her room, she ran into Hades, who was in a rather chatty mood.

He was leaning against the wall, clearly awaiting her return. When she showed up, he said, "Not that you aren't doing a bang-up job as the leader of a massive, threatening villain group or anything, but I, and some of the others, are getting a bit restless."

"Then what do you suggest I do?" Maleficent asked. "Stoop so low as to accommodate their petty wishes and let them lose? That lot wouldn't know what to do with themselves if I let them run wild."

"Well then how about we do something active... but organized?" Hades said. "And I'm not talking like a field day here. I say, we go and grab the Key kid, grab his Princess of Heart girlfriend, and then we go through with the stupid plan."

Even without telling Hades, or any of the others, about the Light leaving Kairi, there were still plenty of holes in what he was suggesting. "You know full well that we aren't ready to carry out our plan. There are many more layers to this than just obtaining two individuals."

"You keep saying that, but I'm not seeing any blueprints other than 'obtaining two individuals', you get me? You reading my mail, lady?"

"I merely wish to avoid any of the others getting bold and setting out to complete 'step 1' on their own. That is why I haven't talked about step one. But we'll be there soon enough."

"If we haven't gotten there yet, it sounds more like step twenty-three to me," Hades said sarcastically. "Whatever. But we all had pretty good things going back on our own worlds, not just me. I won't be the first to skedaddle out of here if things stay this way, but I sure as hell won't be the last." He walked off down the hall without another word.

**On the Shera, a few hours later...**

Kairi just felt like she had watched a two-hour movie that should have been three weeks long.

Jacob hadn't tried to cram too much material into a short time span or anything... it just felt like he had barely touched upon something much bigger. It was like watching a trailer. A really, really long trailer. For an insanely long movie.

She was reminded of a concept that one of her teachers back on Destiny Islands brought up. Something called 'tangential learning'. The idea was that someone is introduced to a concept briefly but in an interesting way so that they wanted to go and learn more about the topic. That felt a bit like what Jacob had done with his little movie. Not intentionally... or at least she didn't think. But he had been right, the history of this 'Earth', or specifically, Land of Liberty, was indeed interesting. Kairi couldn't help but wonder if Radiant Garden had a long, interesting history or not.

Well, why didn't she just ask? Not Jacob, of course, heavens no.

"Hey Emily?"

"Yeah?" the other girl replied. They were still in the lounge; Zidane had departed, and Sora fiddling with some sort of pendent on the other side of the room.

"After watching that video, it makes me wonder... Uh, does Radiant Garden have a history like Land of Liberty did?"

Emily looked at her strangely. "Well... I guess... I mean, everywhere's got history, right?"

"Well, then what is it?" Kairi pressed.

Emily scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "Well, you've got to take into account that I got cast out when I was four... I really don't remember the current events all that well, if you know what I mean. And my dad wasn't too keen on talking about it."

"Why, did you ask him?"

"Well, yeah. I wanted to know where I had come from. For a while he tried to convince me that it had just been a bad dream, and that we had always lived where we were then... I never believed him, even though my memories of Radiant Garden were blurry. I went along with it, for his sake... I guess it was his way of trying to forget about my mom."

There was an awkward pause. "So... uh... not to be rude, but-"

"She didn't come out with us after Radiant Garden collapsed," Emily replied swiftly. "I already told Sora and Zidane. Forgot you didn't know."

"Oh... wow..." Kairi murmured. "I'm... I'm really sorry."

"It's okay," Emily said. "I mean, you didn't have either of your parents, and you didn't remember anything!"

Kairi giggled mildly. "Well, really didn't care, to be honest. Sora and-" Words caught in her throat for a moment before she continued as though she hadn't stopped. "-Riku were more interested in where I came from than I was myself. They pestered me about it all the time." She laughed and threw a glance over at Sora. "It was really annoying."

"Yeah, well, you were the one being weird and not caring about where you came from," Sora replied, not looking away from his pendant, which he was dangling in the air before him. "Who was more annoying?"

"You. Definitely. You were still bothering me about it after ten years."

"Hmm."

Kairi turned back to Emily. "So, back to how this all started. Radiant Garden...?"

Emily let her head loll to the side and looked up. "I'm probably wrong about the details... and what little I understand about politics today was _completely_ lost on me back then, so a lot was probably lost in translation."

"Well, do your best."

"Well... again, this could be wrong... years before we were born- I don't know how long, it could have been ten, it could have been twenty-, the ruling king at the time was tyrannical. I'm not sure if it was an internal power struggle, or an citizen takeover, or what, but Ansem took things over and started a new government that was controled by a ruling body, not just one figure. The positions of King and Queen and such still existed, but most of the power of the positions was taken away. People really, really liked Ansem... or at least my dad really liked Ansem. No one knew that he was doing anything sciencey on the side. He was just a political leader."

"Anything about me? Or Rinoa? Or my parents?" Kairi asked, trying her best not to sound too emotional over it.

"No," Emily answered flatly. "I'm sure I knew there were Princesses, but if I knew anything about you, I don't remember it."

Kairi was clearly disappointed, but she did her best to hide it. Her best wasn't very good, though.

Clearly Emily felt as though she was guilty of something. "I-I'm sorry, I really don't-"

"No no, it's fine..." Kairi murmured, looking down to the side. When she realized how incredibly 'not fine' that was, she looked back up and smiled. "Really!"

Emily was unconvinced, and looked a bit sad herself. "I suppose we both lost our homes at the same age, didn't we?" Before Kairi responded, Emily said, "But who was it more painful for, do you think? Me, the one who had vague memories of it and a missing mother, or you, the one who knew absolutely nothing?"

"She was in shock for the first few weeks," Sora cut in. "I remember it distinctly. I was the one who found her, washed up on the shore. I... well, I kept tabs on her after that."

"From what Riku said, it sounded sort of like you stalked me," Kairi joked. A sort of dead, empty look came over Sora's eyes. Realizing her mistake, Kairi moved the conversation along as quickly as possible. "Yeah, I was out of it, and when I started... you know, _living_ again, I was scared and confused for a while, but... I dunno, I wasn't curious for whatever reason, and I was happy where I was, so I didn't have any reason to be scared."

Emily didn't comment. She didn't need to. Kairi felt like she already had a pretty good idea of how it must have felt. The closest parallel she could find was two years ago, when she woke up in Hollow Bastion, with Sora's body falling backwards as though in slow motion, a huge blade jutting from his chest. She was in a strange place, with strange creatures attacking her, two strange creatures trying to defend her, and a ghost of Riku appearing in front of a tall, formidable man. She had no idea what was going on... and then after she did finally understand, she was left on Traverse Town with people she didn't know, and the one person who she was familiar with, Sora, leaving just a few days later to return to Hollow Bastion. She hadn't thought it was fair at the time... but even though the severity of the situation had been explained to her, she hadn't held much respect for it. She just wanted to know why she couldn't stay with her friend...

Actually, that was pretty different from Emily's situation. But... at the same time, they had both been sucked out of familiar surroundings and left with only one familiar face, and the other person they so desperately wanted to be okay off in some unknown location. Kairi wasn't sure how much that counted for, but she did truly feel sorry for Emily, whether she fully understood the other girl's pain or not.

"Can we... uh, talk about something else?" Emily asked. Kairi suddenly realized that they had been stuck on a pretty morbid topic for quite a while. Emily quickly added, "Not that I mind talking about me and... well, all that stuff, but I just feel like we should lighten the mood or something."

"Yeah, sure!" Kairi replied as cheerily as she could.

Sora was the one to offer the subject change, though. "Emily, have you ever seen summon magic?"

"Uh... no? What's that?"

"I use charms like this one to summon allies to help me in battle. I lost all the ones I had gotten my hands on after I defeated Organization XIII... I'm still not sure where they got to. But I kind of want to know what this one calls. You know, so I can better use it in battle if I need to."

"That might not be a good idea, Sora," Kairi said. "Didn't two of your old summons call a lion and an elephant?"

"Yeah, but as soon as I use the summon, I forge, like, a connection with whatever it was that I called. We know each others' names and stuff. It's kind of weird. They won't go wrecking stuff."

"I don't doubt that," Kairi continued. "But their size might not be very good for this room."

Sora frowned. "Huh... I guess that's a good point. But then again, I don't think that a lion or an elephant would wear a fedora."

"A little chicken was called by a baseball charm and a giant blue man was called by a lamp charm." Emily laughed quietly at the absurdity of Kairi's statement. "I don't think the image is enough to go on here."

Disappointed, Sora slipped the charm back into his pocket. "Well, don't blame me if we get caught in an intense combat situation and the charm only calls a healer or something."

"I'm sure you'll be able to manage just fine on your own," Kairi teased, an undertone of admiration in her voice. Sora sighed, reminded once again of the awkward truth that Kairi didn't know about... well, herself. He stood up from the sofa he had been sitting on and departed without another word, leaving both Emily and Kairi feeling confused, and the latter a tad defeated.

**Zidane's Room...**

Zidane was laying on his side, staring at the wall his bed was pushed against. When he heard the door to his room open, he didn't bother to turn, but he did when someone said, "Can I cut off your tail?"

Zidane jumped up and looked at Jacob, trying to read the impossible man's face and figure out if he was being serious or not.

"I'm just kidding. But if you want to come to Earth, we're going to need to find a way to conceal it."

"Can't we just say I'm on my way to a costume party?" Zidane suggested, only partly in jest.

"Your tail moves a little too realistically for that, if you know what I'm saying." There was a pause. "Can I ask why you have a tail, anyway?"

"You can ask, but I'm not going to answer."

"That's my line, jerk."

"It takes one to know one."

"That's what she said."

"Said the liar."

"That's not what your mom said last night."

"Do you seriously want to keep going with this?"

"Nah, I think I hit my quota for today."

"So then," Zidane said, "In all seriousness, do you really think it's all that big of a deal that I have a tail?"

"There is literally no magic on this world," Jacob replied. "I'm actually uncertain if Sora will even be able to summon his Keyblade. I don't think that people will just forget about seeing a teenager with a furry, realistic, moving tail sticking out of his ass."

"Well, from the video, everyone seemed to dress very... differently than the way I do. Perhaps I really could say that I was going to a costume party if I just did my best to hold my tail still?"

Jacob pondered the idea for a moment, then said, "That could work... With Sora's hair and your and Kairi's clothes, I suppose we could pull that off."

"Problem solved," Zidane said. "Now... was there anything else you wanted to say?"

"You'll need to either leave your knives here or let me hold onto them for you."

"What? Why?"

"Because just putting them in those leather sheathes isn't going to conceal them well enough. You'll get arrested."

"Are the people on this world pussies or something?"

"You're hilarious," Jacob said without humor, turning for the door. "I'm going to go now."

"I'm going to cry," Zidane replied in the flattest voice he could muster. Jacob walked out, leaving Zidane alone.

**Several hours later...**

It was a little strange to think that they had left Hoth not that long ago. Everyone was still on that time, so pretty much everyone turned in before Emily did, who was, obviously, several hours behind everyone else. Kairi had tried to go to bed, but eventually found that she couldn't go to sleep knowing that the other girl was still awake in the other room. She got up, still in her night things, and snuck next door. She listened for movement, but she didn't hear anything, even though the lights were still on inside. She opened the door.

Emily wasn't there. Winnie the Pooh's book was on the floor, open.

They had taken the time to explain what had happened with Emily, and where they had decided to keep her things. Kairi felt like she should probably let Emily have her space...

No. It wasn't going to last. Kairi dove nose first into the book.

After a few moments, she was standing in a wide open field, with colorful flowers blooming on all sides. There were widely spread trees off in the distance, and a large log laying in the middle of the clearing. It was cloudy, and looked as though a rainstorm might start soon. Suddenly she regretted coming in her sleeping clothes. Though, perhaps it hadn't been that bad. It looked as though it was late afternoon. Perhaps she could sleep here tonight.

Then, of course, Kairi realized she had absolutely no idea where Emily was, or where she had stored her things. But that shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

Then again, the woods _were _100 acres...

"Hurry old Piglet old pal! If we don't get back soon we're gonna get all soaked!"

"O d-d-d-d-d-dear! I'm c-coming!"

Kairi instantly recognized the voices of Tigger and Piglet. She whipped around to see the two of them darting through the trees. "Hey! Guys!"

At her cry, Piglet jumped in fear and ducked behind a tree. Tigger, on the other hand, dropped onto all fours and growled in her direction for just a moment before he realized who it was. He bounced back to his feet and said, "Hey Piglet, there ain't nothin' to be scared of! It's Kairi!"

Piglet looked out from his hiding place and laughed in embarrassment. "Oh, hello Kairi!"

"Hey guys," she said, jogging up to them. "You wouldn't have happened to see anyone else recently, would you?"

"Well, what sort of person?" Tigger asked.

"You guys don't know Emily, do you?" she continued.

"Oh yeah, Emily!" Tigger laughed. "Shucks, she got here ages ago! I figure she's still over at bunny-boy's place!" He refereed to Rabbit's house. "That's where we was heading! Gotta get out of the rain, ya' know?"

Kairi was surprised that they possessed that much foresight. "You won't mind if I come with you, right?"

"Oh, of course not!" Piglet squeaked. "I'm sure someone as big and brave as yourself will be very helpful with scaring off spookables!"

"I'm sure Tigger could have done that," Kairi commented.

Tigger puffed out his chest proudly at the comment. "Well, I don't mean to brag or nothing, but plain-old spookables ain't no match for this Tigger!"

Kairi looked back up at the clouds, which looked angrier than they had when she first arrived. "We should get going," she said. The other two nodded and they all started off through the woods.

**On the Shera...**

Sora couldn't sleep. Thoughts of Kairi and Hearts swarmed around his mind like picky locust, completely smothering him yet not picking at his brain just yet. He felt as though he should have been thinking of something, but nothing was coming to him. Should he have been thinking about Kairi's Heart? Or just Kairi?

Suddenly something came to mind. Now that she wasn't a Princess, would she no longer be a target of the Empire? That woman Tex had come after her twice on Midgar. He had actually been looking forward to meeting her so that he could teach her a lesson, but now... did this mean that Kairi was safe? Well, safer than she was before.

But how would the Empire know she had lost her status? It wasn't like she was wearing a sign or something. But all the same...

Sora rolled over. He didn't feel any better. He rolled over again. The same. Actually, worse. In frustration, he threw his sheets off and sat up, placing his face in his hand in frustration.

What happened after a Princess of Heart died?

Was another one born or something? Or had Kairi been reincarnating for hundreds of years? No, that wouldn't have made any sense, because now there would be two Kairis. But had whatever process there was screwed up since Kairi hadn't actually _died_?

Jacob would know. He would ask Jacob. And if Jacob didn't answer, he would summon his Keyblade. This was Kairi he was worried about. He would get to the bottom of it.

Sora rose and walked out of his room. He went straight to Jacob's with no detours. The door opened to admit him, and he was greeted by bright lights and the sound of water running. The only person asleep was Terra.

Sora looked to the side and saw the door to the bathroom open, and Jacob splashing water on his face, a wild sort of look on his face.

"Damn it," he muttered. "(R-Rated) me... Shit..."

Sora was about to speak up when Jacob suddenly swatted violently at some invisible person next to him. "NO! Get the (R-Rated) out of here! WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU IDIOT!"

"Jacob!" Sora yelled.

Jacob whipped his head around. His glasses were gone from his face, obviously, but his eyes were still concealed by wet hair which draped over his head.

"GET THE (R-Rated) OUT!" This time, he was clearly speaking to Sora. The Keybearer didn't have a chance to say anything else before Jacob charged at him, water flying off his wet head all over the room. "I SAID GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, YOU COCK-SUCKER! MOVE!"

Sora ducked out of the room, and the door closed behind him. Sora backed up, fearful, against the wall behind him, summoning his blade into his hands, as though expecting Jacob to pursue him further.

But no such assault came. In fact, after a few seconds, Sora thought that he could hear Jacob weeping on the other side of the door.

** Yes, he's hallucinating now. But he saw Sora perfectly clear. Jacob's starting to fall apart... and things are going to get worse before they get better... or maybe they'll just keep getting worse. I figure the best way to make a character not a Sue is to drag them through as much shit as possible but not actually make them emo. I guess I made him a little too awesome in the last fic... he's going to be toned down a bit in this one.**

** Disclaimers: Don't own Simba or Dumbo, who of course are mentioned as summons here. I don't own whoever/whatever is in the fedora charm. Just to save you some brian power, it isn't Indiana Jones. I don't own 'Ben'. You'll find out who he is next chapter.**

** Did I claim Router last time? Because she's mine. So is Alice. The 'Legion of Light', and the first 'Great War' and all that stuff is mine too.**

** Hopefully I don't need to explain what Earth is. 'Land of Liberty'... well, I'm not sure exactly what it covers, so let's just say North America and leave it at that. Roughly North America. I didn't really bother to work out the exacts of 'systems'... it's just my excuse for making irregularly large worlds. Or is it...?**

** No, that's pretty much it.**

** Oh by the way, there's a great little button just below here. It's one of the best, most buttony buttons ever seen on the web. Just a simple click and then a few words of written text can improve someone's life. And how much would I pay for this? Nothing, it's free! But wait, there's more! Click on the button within the next forty seconds and you'll get the Flame Shield, absolutely free! So come on, what are you waiting for? Click the buttony button today, and improve an author's life!**


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